Communication Is the New Superpower

Generating code is cheap now. The craft of software engineering — understanding architecture, making good design decisions, reviewing thoroughly — still matters deeply. But one skill is becoming disproportionately important: communication.

Developers who can clearly articulate what they want, ask good follow-up questions, and structure their requirements well will get vastly better results from coding agents. The scale is tipping from pure technical prowess towards the ability to express intent precisely.

If you don't understand something the agent produced, ask a follow-up question. Use a free model if you want. Just don't let code into your codebase that you haven't understood.