The Law of Leaky Abstractions

The law of leaky abstractions means that whenever somebody comes up with a wizzy new code-generation tool that is supposed to make us all ever-so-efficient, you hear a lot of people saying “learn how to do it manually first, then use the wizzy tool to save time.” Code generation tools which pretend to abstract out something, like all abstractions, leak, and the only way to deal with the leaks competently is to learn about how the abstractions work and what they are abstracting. So the abstractions save us time working, but they don't save us time learning.

This is the problem computers present to us in general, not just in coding. They abstract tasks for us. Even something as simple as a spell checker. If you grow up never really learning to spell but always relying on a spell checker (or autocorrect), you'll never be able to write without the assistance of a computer. The computer has become a crutch. As the author stated, abstractions and automation can help you save time doing but they cannot help you save time learning.