Everywhere you look around, you’ll probably see something to do with AI or “The end of software engineering”, “junior developers are cooked” or some shit like that And it can get pretty tiring really quickly.
Don’t get me wrong, AI is impressive, heck I even use it myself sometimes, but I try to go out of my way and make it incredibly difficult to do so, because there’s something beautiful about thinking through a problem and coming up with a solution -doesn’t matter if its good or bad.
I disagree with the people saying that junior developers shouldn’t use AI to learn. I think anyone should use what feels comfortable for them to learn, emphasis on learn. People used to learn from books, but youtube made learning things accessible to everyone. I’m pretty sure if there’s a topic that I can’t seem to wrap my head around, there’s a youtube video out there explaining exactly that.
But this came with its own issues, the dreaded tutorial hell. Same thing is happening with AI,
you have a problem,
you ask gippity about it,
it spits out code
problem solved
dopamine hit
and this can make you feel like you are progressing really fast, when infact its just an illusion.
I really liked a quote from DHH where he said something around
There is beauty in competence
I’m pretty sure I butchered his quote but you get the idea.
The thing that annoys me the most is that these people doom posting about AI unfortunately usually have something to sell you.
If you’re a junior developer, all I can say is get good at your craft, its not like that knowledge is going to disappear, matter of fact, I believe it’s going to put you ahead.
P.S
TJ has some pretty great thoughts on curiosity