AI Coding Autopilot vs Manual Control: What Aviation Taught Us About Skill Decay

The aviation industry has a term that should terrify every developer leaning on AI coding tools: automation complacency . Pilots figured out decades ago that the more you rely on autopilot, the worse you get at actually flying the plane. And when the autopilot fails — because it always eventually does — you'd better hope your manual skills haven't atrophied. We're living through the exact same transition in software engineering right now. AI coding assistants are our autopilot, and most of us ha