The Bet On Juniors Just Got Better (tidyfirst.substack.com)
from codeinabox@programming.dev to programming@programming.dev on 12 Dec 2025 15:32
https://programming.dev/post/42263992

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codeinabox@programming.dev on 12 Dec 2025 16:05 collapse

This really sums up Beck’s argument, that now is the perfect time to invest in junior developers, because AI allows them to learn and skill up faster:

The juniors working this way compress their ramp dramatically. Tasks that used to take days take hours. Not because the AI does the work, but because the AI collapses the search space. Instead of spending three hours figuring out which API to use, they spend twenty minutes evaluating options the AI surfaced. The time freed this way isn’t invested in another unprofitable feature, though, it’s invested in learning.

artifex@lemmy.zip on 12 Dec 2025 16:49 collapse

This is only really true if there will never be a need to really learn the code base — which maybe will be true for most devs, it’s hard to tell. But if not it could leave the majority of juniors with a much shallower understanding of the way things work under the hood.

dneaves@lemmy.world on 14 Dec 2025 16:37 collapse

I think the shallowness of understanding also stems from the codebase itself, and moreso that than the Ai finding where something is.

A poorly organized codebase, dynamic file imports lsp’s can’t follow, lack of annotations on unclearly-named arguments, etc. are way worse for understanding a codebase than Ai saying “the thing you need is this method”, which Ai could also explain how it got there at least. At that point, Ai is a better than what they would have without it.

Write clean, understandable code. Document it, too. Everyone will thank you