TL;DR
The author argues that the ability to deliver ticketed work reliably is just the introductory stage of a software engineer’s career. Real engineering involves choosing approaches that preserve long-term product health, weigh trade-offs, and sometimes leave systems measurably better.
What happened
In a recent essay, the author frames routine ticket delivery as the ‘tutorial’ of software engineering. Developers who consistently implement requested behaviors, document code, and ship changes often earn praise and promotions, but the piece warns this is only the starting point. The essay says many engineers who can deliver features still fail to account for the ongoing costs of change; some contributions are value-neutral or even harmful over a product’s lifetime. Experienced engineers, the author argues, assess not just whether a behavior can be implemented but whether it can be implemented in a way that preserves product health. The text also highlights that exploring options that improve systems more broadly — across business, technical, ethical and interpersonal dimensions — is the point where engineering can produce outsized returns. It cautions against treating feature delivery as the final career goal and notes that trends like large language models accelerate pressures to commoditize engineering work.
Why it matters
- Promoting engineers based solely on ticket delivery risks labeling them as experts before they can steward long-term product health.
- Short-term feature delivery can create ongoing costs that reduce product value over time if trade-offs aren’t considered.
- Engineering growth requires learning to identify solutions that improve systems beyond merely satisfying a ticket.
- The rise of tools such as large language models intensifies pressures to treat engineering as a commoditized, repeatable task.
Key facts
- Typical job requirements emphasize the ability to deliver ticketed tasks promptly and with high quality.
- The author describes reaching reliable feature delivery as ‘beating the tutorial.’
- Organizations often reward consistent feature delivery with senior promotions, which the author sees as premature in many cases.
- All change in a system carries cost; a viable implementation may still be unacceptable for product health.
- Junior engineers frequently produce approaches that are value-neutral or value-negative over a product’s lifetime.
- Experienced engineers evaluate multiple approaches, weighing risk, collaboration needs, and long-term trade-offs.
- Options that leave systems in a better state can produce disproportionate (exponential) benefits, but they are harder to spot.
- The author views the commoditization of engineering—accelerated recently by LLMs—as a worrying trend.
What to watch next
- How teams define promotion criteria: whether they prioritize long-term system stewardship over feature throughput.
- Whether organizations invest in practices that help identify and pursue options that improve system health.
- The evolving role and influence of large language models on engineering workflows and the labor market.
Quick glossary
- Ticket: A tracked request describing a task or bug to be implemented or fixed in a product.
- Feature: A delivered behavior or capability in software, typically described in a ticket or product requirement.
- LLM: Large language model — a class of AI systems trained on large text corpora to generate or reason with language.
- Product health: A broad concept that captures technical maintainability, user value, ethical considerations, and business fit.
Reader FAQ
What does ‘beating the tutorial’ mean?
It refers to reliably delivering ticketed tasks and reaching a basic level of competence as an engineer.
Is delivering features sufficient career growth?
According to the source, no — delivering features is table stakes; meaningful growth requires broader judgment about system health and trade-offs.
Should engineers refuse promotion based on feature delivery?
Not confirmed in the source.
Are large language models the cause of engineering commoditization?
The author says LLMs accelerate commoditization but are not the root cause.
Beating the Tutorial January 6, 2026 Most software engineer job descriptions will have a requirement like this : Has the ability to deliver ticketed tasks promptly and to a high…
Sources
- Beating the Tutorial
- How I, a non-developer, read the tutorial you, a developer …
- Factory.ai: A Guide To Building A Software Development …
- Real Product Engineering That Actually Delivers
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