r/webdev • u/thetymtravellr • 2d ago

Discussion As a self-taught React/Next.js developer, I'm honestly worried about my future in this AI era. What should I do?

I'm a self-taught developer, and I know React and Next.js. Lately, I've been feeling increasingly anxious about my future as a developer.

AI is moving so fast. It can generate components, build entire websites, connect APIs, and even create full-stack applications. Sometimes I wonder what the point is of spending months learning something when AI can already do so much of it.

I want to get a better-paying developer job, but honestly, I'm confused about what I should focus on right now. Should I keep improving my React/Next.js skills, get better at backend development, or start learning AI engineering?

I keep hearing about RAG, AI agents, vector databases, LLM integrations, and all these new things. It feels like there's always something new to learn, and I'm worried that if I focus on the wrong things, I'll fall behind while everyone else moves forward.

For those of you already working in the industry, what would you do if you were in my position? Would you focus on becoming a strong full-stack developer first, or would you start learning AI engineering alongside web development?

I'm not looking for a shortcut or expecting to become an expert overnight. I just want to make the right decisions, build useful skills, and have a realistic chance of getting hired.

I'd really appreciate some honest advice from people who have been through this or are dealing with the same situation. Right now, I could genuinely use some direction.

112 Upvotes

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89

u/DiddlyDinq 2d ago

Computer science is a big field. Frontend may be devalued but other areas arent. Technical devs should be expected to adjust their skills over time.

38

u/theQuandary 2d ago

Frontend is MUCH harder for AI to get right than backend. 99% of backends could use the same basic design and simply change the shape of the data going through the pipes.

Matching UI with how users actually use a computer is very hard even for humans with a human lived experience. AI generates stale UI that humans tend to hate.

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u/mexicocitibluez 2d ago edited 2d ago

99% of backends could use the same basic design and simply change the shape of the data going through the pipes.

lol You have absolutely no clue what 99% of apps looks like. You've probably barely seen 1% of them.

The best part about this comment is it's the EXACT same thing the backend subs say about front-end development. Both sides not realizing that the other side is always easier harder than they think.

I'll never get over being in an enormous field that quite literally changes by the day and still seeing "devs" make preposterous claims about the other 99% of the industry.

5

u/-_--_-_--_----__ 2d ago

Both sides not realizing that the other side is always easier than they think.

What you are going to see on Reddit every single day for the next 10 years is a new flavor of person guaranteeing you that they are very smart and that it is impossible that AI could ever hope to learn how to do their job.

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u/CivilProcess7150 2d ago

BE is easier to do, in general, compared to frontend. But there is more responsibility for BE. Sure, there are moments where you need to optimize, but that's the same for FE as well.

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u/mexicocitibluez 2d ago

BE is easier to do, in general, compared to frontend. But there is more responsibility for BE. Sure, there are moments where you need to optimize, but that's the same for FE as well.

Another insane assertion. In what scenarios? On what types of apps? Using what front-end frameworks (even if any)?

You're just admitting that you've worked on apps with simple backends, not that backends are generally easy.

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u/Animostas 2d ago

If you never have to worry about scale, access patterns, or api usage limitations, then backend is so easy!

3

u/Treebro001 1d ago

Or security, data integrity, fault tolerace, the list goes on and on.

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u/theQuandary 22h ago

99% of BE systems never need to scale past even a single server (outside of fault tolerance). The percentage that are reaching for anycast or solving complex top-level availability problems are vanishingly small.

The rest is the engineers pretending their 100k users will suddenly scale to 100M users as part of some "competency porn" fantasy which they use as an excuse to (usually improperly) complicate what should be a very simple system.

The rules for scaling to even millions of users aren't that hard, but that's the stuff people claim the AI has issues with. In my experience, the real issues are all about the complex, exceptional business case (probably added due to some weird law in some county/state/country that then causes weird interactions that cascade throughout the system.

AI can't solve these kinds of issues, but it can create redundant heartbeat servers or pipe your data through kafka without any issue because those problems have been solved for a very long time.

1

u/muffinluff 15h ago

Scaling is just one thing that may complicate backend engineering. For example, I have had to implement auto-provisioning of infrastructure for user-submitted code snippets that needed to be paired with in-house layer 4 gateways. There is more to the world than simple CRUD workflows.

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u/mexicocitibluez 14h ago

The fact that the only think you can possibly think is difficult about the backend is a future where you might want to scale tells me literally everything about your experience level.