The text discusses the benefits of using dependency injection and smart resource management in data engineering, specifically through the Dagster platform. Resources in Dagster are defined as abstractions that enable developers to avoid repetitive code by handling external services, tools, and storage locations more efficiently. This approach allows for modular and scalable data platforms by injecting necessary resources into assets only when needed, rather than hard-coding them. The text emphasizes the importance of managing different environments and showcases how Dagster facilitates this with resources tailored for various environments, ensuring consistent experiences across local, staging, and production setups. Additionally, it highlights how dependency injection keeps business logic clean by separating infrastructure concerns, thereby simplifying testing and code maintenance. Resources also provide an encapsulation layer for APIs, which enhances code clarity and testability. Overall, the text advocates for the adoption of resources as a best practice in data engineering to ensure cleaner, more maintainable, and scalable code, while also making it easier for teams to collaborate and onboard new members.