Chapter 3 - More Than Faster Coding

Copilot didn't just make me type faster. It changed what I spend my typing on.

The first mistake people make with Copilot is thinking it's autocomplete with a marketing budget. It isn't. If all you do is accept suggestions a little faster, you've bought a slightly nicer keyboard.

The real shift is this: Copilot collapses the gap between thinking and doing. I can describe what I want, in the language I think in, and watch a working draft appear. That changes the economics of every decision I make during the day.

• I explore more options because the cost of trying one is low.
• I refactor sooner because the cost of cleaning up is low.
• I write tests earlier because the cost of scaffolding them is low.
• I document more honestly because the cost of drafting is low.

Notice what's happening. The bottleneck moves. It's no longer typing. It's no longer recall. It's judgement, knowing which option is the right one, which refactor is worth doing, which test actually matters. That's the part I have to bring. That's the part I want to bring.

So when I say Copilot is more than faster coding, I mean it raised the ceiling on what I can attempt in a day. I'm not doing the same job a little faster. I'm doing a different, more ambitious job, one where I get to spend my hours on the parts only a human can do well.