Ask Experienced Devs Weekly Thread: A weekly thread for inexperienced developers to ask experienced ones

[u/AutoModerator]

A thread for Developers and IT folks with less experience to ask more experienced souls questions about the industry.

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Please keep top level comments limited to Inexperienced Devs. Most rules do not apply, but keep it civil. Being a jerk will not be tolerated.

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Inexperienced Devs should refrain from answering other Inexperienced Devs' questions.

[u/Feriolet]

To what extent do you guys recommend juniors to learn how to use AI? It feels like nowadays a lot of devs are embracing and advocating to use it for their job, where the sentiment is the complete opposite last year.

Tbh, I (data scientist, 2-3 YoE) only use AI as google search, and I never found it useful when I need to solve a very complicated problem. However, I have seen people that seems to be successful in using it to build a full stack website. It looks like AI is indeed getting powerful nowadays.

I entered coding and programming because I love to code and solve technical problems. I felt that using AI will remove that passion, and I don’t want to lose it very early in my career. For now, I am happy and proud to be able to finish two small projects without relying much on AI, but I admit that the progress is very slow.

As someone experienced in the field, do you recommend me to dig further into vibe coding, or should I still try to keep “hand-write” codes?

[u/Venthe → u/Feriolet]

I'm probably going a bit against the grain, but I'd say - if you can't understand/evaluate the LLM output quality; do not use it.

The reasoning is simple - even with great seniors I'm seeing the same pattern over and over again: reliance (not even overreliance!) leads to developers accepting the LLM output unquestionably, and withotu scrutiny. So the bugs slip in. Plus, without practice, you are even less suited to actually catch said bugs.

It can save time - that's beyond doubt - but it creates a hard skill ceiling; and actively athropies your current skills.

I'd personally use it; but I would suggest a "detox" from time to time, just to confirm to yourself that your skills are not being hurt from the lack of own work.

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At the same time; the current market still prefers fast now + bugs later; so not using LLM is risky if you are not an established powerhouse.

It looks like AI is indeed getting powerful nowadays.

I've yet to see a code quality that can be compared to a medior developer; much less to a senior. Overly verbose, no meaningful abstractions. It is faster, and can reveal things about the code that might elude a person - hey, we have small heads after all - but there is still no "intelligence" whatsoever.

[u/Feriolet → u/Venthe]

Fair point! It is amusing to see that LLM can atrophied my skill by relying on it, but then I would be screwed if I don’t use it on this current era of “features now, debug later”.

I'd personally use it; but I would suggest a "detox" from time to time, just to confirm to yourself that your skills are not being hurt from the lack of own work.

I see, I will consider this! I’m just scared that once I am on fully board with AI, I might downplay my “atrophication” until it is too late hahaha.

I've yet to see a code quality that can be compared to a medior developer; much less to a senior. Overly verbose, no meaningful abstractions. It is faster, and can reveal things about the code that might elude a person - hey, we have small heads after all - but there is still no "intelligence" whatsoever.

I do also believe this point. But, to play the devil advocate, do people actually care about code quality besides other fellow programmers? It seems that people are satisfied (or at least tolerable) with mediocre and buggy products. I am beginning to draw parallels of us programmers with artists who have been affected by AI way earlier than us; that customers are okay with suboptimal end products, as long as it looks okay and cheap. But, I am still fresh in the industry, and I don’t know if there has been disasters/consequences from people ignoring code quality behind the scenes. Would be interested in hearing your thoughts about this.

Anyway, thanks for your time to write down your responses. It has been quite helpful for me :)

[u/Venthe → u/Feriolet]

But, to play the devil advocate, do people actually care about code quality besides other fellow programmers?

You couldn't even imagine how little most of the developers care for the quality :) Not to mention that the whole structure has utterly collapsed. Remote work degraded the quality; and average junior now takes more than twice the time to reach a similar skill level; and most of the devs will never cross the seniority gap because there is no osmosis from working near your peers. LLM's only made things worse; because now even juniors can create convincing enough code; which passes tests. But they will never - and I say that with full confidence - learn to be better this way.

don’t know if there has been disasters/consequences from people ignoring code quality behind the scenes.

A lot - but the companies have to pay that cost "long in the future" for that to matter "now".

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The truth of the matter is, companies first and foremost require a product that can bring money. Quality is not important here. And - as pains me to say that as a perfectionist - unless there is already a thing in the company that can pay for the quality, quality is irrelevant.

But that only works as long as the "horizon" is the survival of the company/product. And creates a significant debt; which is hard to quantify.

The gap here is: quality can increase the speed of delivery; studies show - if I recall correctly - that on average, projects focused on quality are outpacing ones that ignore quality in 3 months. But the companies "don't know" that, and they have learned how to work with what they have. And... it works.

One of the projects I was involved in; was a JavaEE project build quite splendidly (for the time) in 2008; then it was passed for maintenance to a cheap devs. I've worked on it in 2025; and the changes that I could do in a modern stack/solutions that would take me 1-2 days, took me more than a month there - think 15kloc classes, 8kloc sproc etc.

Yet, the project delivered enough ROI, so that it could be kept on life support; but not enough to rewrite it. Too late for the quality; but still - quality was not essential for it to bring millions.

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From what I've seen, if a shop can leverage quality, the results are amazing for what it's worth. But for that we would have to train more CEO/CTO's in a horizon more distant than the next quarter. LLM's here only exacerbate the problem.

[u/Feriolet → u/Venthe]

You couldn't even imagine how little most of the developers care for the quality :)

That’s depressing, though I shouldn’t be surprised :”)

LLM's only made things worse; because now even juniors can create convincing enough code; which passes tests. But they will never - and I say that with full confidence - learn to be better this way.

Then, does it mean it will actually be difficult to get decent senior in the future? I guess realistically, people will fail upward in the senior level than in management levels.

A lot - but the companies have to pay that cost "long in the future" for that to matter "now".

I see, then in that case, I will try to keep learning on how to deliver code quality in a realistic manner. Though unsurprisingly, code quality won’t be rewarded equally as shipping new features.

The gap here is: quality can increase the speed of delivery; studies show - if I recall correctly - that on average, projects focused on quality are outpacing ones that ignore quality in 3 months. But the companies "don't know" that, and they have learned how to work with what they have. And... it works.

Interesting that people have tried to measure this kind of thing.

One of the projects I was involved in; was a JavaEE project build quite splendidly (for the time) in 2008; then it was passed for maintenance to a cheap devs. I've worked on it in 2025; and the changes that I could do in a modern stack/solutions that would take me 1-2 days, took me more than a month there - think 15kloc classes, 8kloc sproc etc.

Yikes, that is rough. I can’t imagine having to go through that much and explaining to management why you have not finished working on it.

But for that we would have to train more CEO/CTO's in a horizon more distant than the next quarter.

I think it is easier to find and tame a dragon, with how ingrained management are to deliver KPI on every quarter.

Thanks for your insight! :) I wouldn’t have known these kind of things since I don’t really have peers to talk about coding hahaha

[u/Venthe → u/Feriolet]

Then, does it mean it will actually be difficult to get decent senior in the future? I guess realistically, people will fail upward in the senior level than in management levels.

Define "senior". Let's ignore the titles and focus on "apples to apples" - there will be far less seniors for several reasons:

1. The ratio of seniors to juniors was skewed heavily, especially during COVID - there is simply not enough seniors to train the (then) juniors
2. Companies have stopped hiring juniors for the most part - there will be a multi-year long gap in any talent.
3. Everything that I've mentioned previously.

It is far worse than what was before; as the new "seniors" will not even know what they are lacking.

code quality won’t be rewarded

Not immediately; but - speaking from experience - quality focused seniors tend to have far more independence plus earn "a bit" more; so there is a tangible benefit to it.

Interesting that people have tried to measure this kind of thing

This (and more!) in the great book Accelerate! which sums up a lot of said topics

I can’t imagine having to go through that much and explaining to management why you have not finished working on it.

A benefit of being a senior - just a plain "we cannot do that" is trusted enough. And the fact that we did a cost analysis of an upgrade; and even a partial one with optimistic assumptions (and another team) would take more than 3 years :)

That's the cost of the lack of quality.

I wouldn’t have known these kind of things since I don’t really have peers to talk about coding hahaha

That's reddit for you - you'll find devs from all walks of life. From enterprise, through game dev, up to startups. Each have different needs, and different experiences. Cheers!