The Productivity Illusion

Work in progress. The title and the content will evolve before publication.

The idea

AI assistants now let anyone produce code, analyse a problem and propose a solution in minutes. That is a major step forward. But it raises a question I cannot let go of:

Have we really become more competent and more effective, or have we simply increased our capacity to produce?

This book is not a critique of AI. It starts from a conviction: AI is a revolution we should fully embrace, but its rapid adoption creates problems our organisations do not yet know how to handle. The point is not to slow down, it is to evolve our methods, our processes and our engineering culture.

What it is about

• The illusion of competence: producing a solution does not mean understanding it.
• Production speed versus validation limits: AI writes faster than we can review, test and maintain.
• Weakening collaboration when everyone works alone with their own assistant.
• Collective memory fading when regenerating is easier than reusing.
• Mentoring and knowledge transfer now that AI is the first person juniors turn to.
• The value of an engineer when producing becomes easy but technical judgement stays essential.
• Decisions based on generated results: convincing but fragile benchmarks, analyses and reports.

What the reader will get

The view of a practising engineer, not an opponent of AI. Concrete situations from the field, and above all practical ways to use AI more effectively, responsibly and sustainably: reviewing code generated at scale, validating and holding people accountable, keeping conversations alive in the team, capitalising on what we already know, recognising real expertise, and growing juniors without taking away their chance to reason.

Who it is for

Software and systems engineers, developers, Tech Leads, Engineering Managers, CTOs, and the students and young professionals who enter the field with an AI assistant already open.

The real challenge of artificial intelligence is not learning to produce more, but learning to build better, together.

If this speaks to you, write to me.