There are basically two skillsets that matter more in the age of coding agents. The first is the one everyone talks about: product sense and…

There are basically two skillsets that matter more in the age of coding agents. The first is the one everyone talks about: product sense and taste. Code is cheap now, so knowing exactly what to build matters. The second gets less attention: deep technical chops plus relentless attention to detail. For better or worse, the best defense against slop entering your codebase is an expert engineer reviewing and gating everything. These are the people who can mold all the code being slung around into production systems. This matters a lot in complex and large codebases. Coding agents can produce code that works more often than not, but it can be subtly suboptimal, overcomplicated, missing key nuances. The absolute best engineers have both skillsets.

Source: Harrison Chase (X) | 2026-06-22