I haven’t done 9-5 programming (edit: and especially not on a single codebase!) in many years. My job slowly evolved to be more architecture and collaboration (between product teams, architects & dev teams), with the odd code to kickstart a project or diving in to help resolve an issue.
In that respect, it’s great to be working more directly with code again. Both in languages I know well, and those I am learning. Most teams around me are embracing AI tools, and coordination is easier.
As a general risk to cognitive ability - it absolutely comes with risks. But there have always been people who want to understand more, and those who are happy to solve a problem without really understanding it (often producing poor code / laying landmines, costing everyone time)
We now have more tools at our disposal to build & maintain quality systems. Those who learn to use the tools well and understand the problem domain will outperform those who don’t. Those who can’t (or won’t) will slowly be pushed out. And businesses who can’t differentiate will dig their own graves.
I definitely don’t see the use of AI as being a benefit for developers’ careers, seeing as the quality of the code they produce is quite low. I feel like AI powered devs will basically be a dime a dozen, and they generally will be hired to do slop work, if they get hired at all. It’s pretty easy to tell an AI to write some code.
Devs who can code without AI I think will be the desirable ones, since they will produce high quality code.
That’s kind of how it’s always been, with AI devs taking the role of junior engineers and interns.
It’s all about the ability and willingness to judge. If you can judge good code, you can write good code, and you can guide juniors and AI to write good code. If you give up your judgement, all is lost.
I haven’t done 9-5 programming (edit: and especially not on a single codebase!) in many years. My job slowly evolved to be more architecture and collaboration (between product teams, architects & dev teams), with the odd code to kickstart a project or diving in to help resolve an issue.
In that respect, it’s great to be working more directly with code again. Both in languages I know well, and those I am learning. Most teams around me are embracing AI tools, and coordination is easier.
As a general risk to cognitive ability - it absolutely comes with risks. But there have always been people who want to understand more, and those who are happy to solve a problem without really understanding it (often producing poor code / laying landmines, costing everyone time)
We now have more tools at our disposal to build & maintain quality systems. Those who learn to use the tools well and understand the problem domain will outperform those who don’t. Those who can’t (or won’t) will slowly be pushed out. And businesses who can’t differentiate will dig their own graves.
I definitely don’t see the use of AI as being a benefit for developers’ careers, seeing as the quality of the code they produce is quite low. I feel like AI powered devs will basically be a dime a dozen, and they generally will be hired to do slop work, if they get hired at all. It’s pretty easy to tell an AI to write some code.
Devs who can code without AI I think will be the desirable ones, since they will produce high quality code.
That’s kind of how it’s always been, with AI devs taking the role of junior engineers and interns.
It’s all about the ability and willingness to judge. If you can judge good code, you can write good code, and you can guide juniors and AI to write good code. If you give up your judgement, all is lost.