Is it worth learning to code?
10 Feb 2026 · 1 min

0:44
Lenny Rachitsky argues product managers shouldn't bother learning to code. Your pay is tied to judgment and taste, not output speed. Build products instead to sharpen those skills.

Lenny Rachitsky argues product managers shouldn't bother learning to code. Your pay is tied to judgment and taste, not output speed. Build products instead to sharpen those skills.
With these tools, we're all becoming product managers on steroids. But good product managers are not compensated for writing good PRDs. They're compensated for good judgment. As somebody who directs and builds this product, you need to know what's going to be useful, what's going to be tasteful. People watching that are like, should I start learning how to code? If you haven't done it yet, I'd honestly say no. You're optimizing for the wrong skillset. We won't be rewarded in the world of AI for faster raw output. We won't. We will be rewarded for better judgment. I'm optimizing 100% of my time today on good judgment. Clarity, quality, taste. That doesn't mean you shouldn't build. You get better at this by building.

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