August 13, 2026
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Key takeaways:
- Engineering managers now need hands-on building experience to lead effectively.
- Taste (and the ability to spot AI slop) has become the critical review skill.
- The old speed-vs-quality tradeoff is disappearing, so quality is no longer the cost of moving fast.
When the AI revolution is discussed, the headlines are usually focused on productivity gains for writing code, changes in hiring engineers, and the challenges faced by non-technical team members. The impact on engineering managers is rarely discussed widely.
The skills required to be an effective manager are now completely different from what they were even a year ago.
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August 13, 2026
