Something’s been bugging me about how new devs and I need to talk about it. We’re at this weird inflection point in software development. Every junior dev I talk to has Copilot or Claude or GPT running 24/7. They’re shipping code faster than ever. But when I dig deeper into their understanding of what they’re shipping? That’s where things get concerning. Sure, the code works, but ask why it works that way instead of another way? Crickets. Ask about edge cases? Blank stares. The foundational knowledge that used to come from struggling through problems is just… missing. We’re trading deep understanding for quick fixes, and while it feels great in the moment, we’re going to pay for this later.
looking up docs - mostly useful to find search terms for the real docs
The second was kind of useful since it provided the structure, but I still replaced 90% of it.
I’m still messing with it, but beyond solving “blank page syndrome,” it’s not that great. And for that, I mostly just copy something from elsewhere in the project anyway, which is often faster than going to the LLM.
I’m really bad at explaining what I want, because by the time I can do that, it’s faster to just build it. That said, I’m a senior dev, so I’ve been around the block a bit.
Same. It can generate credible-looking code, but I don’t find it very useful. Here’s what I’ve tried:
The second was kind of useful since it provided the structure, but I still replaced 90% of it.
I’m still messing with it, but beyond solving “blank page syndrome,” it’s not that great. And for that, I mostly just copy something from elsewhere in the project anyway, which is often faster than going to the LLM.
I’m really bad at explaining what I want, because by the time I can do that, it’s faster to just build it. That said, I’m a senior dev, so I’ve been around the block a bit.