Ai First Push

A quick thought on the “AI-first” push in engineering…

While I’m all for upskilling and embracing new technology, a top-down mandate to “use AI” feels like a mistake. We’re confusing the means with the end.

Productivity isn’t about using a specific tool. I’ve seen veterans of the hashtag#VI editor (a minimalist, keyboard-based text editor from the early days of Unix) run laps around developers with feature-packed IDEs. True performance comes from mastery and flow, not from the novelty of the toolkit.

Forcing a tool—any tool—on an expert who has perfected their workflow is counterproductive. The same goes for hashtag#AI.

My view is simple:

• ▶️ Goal: Deliver outstanding outcomes.
• ▶️ Strategy: Enable your teams.
• ▶️ Method: Let them choose the best tools for the job. This might be a new AI pair programmer, or it might be “vibe coding” with a trusted old editor.

Let’s provide the learning resources, set clear goals, and then get out of the way. Trust your people.

What’s your take? Are we focusing too much on the tools and not enough on the outcomes?

You can find the original Linkedin post in: Linkedin post