Matt Garman’s assertion that firing junior builders as a result of AI can do their work is the “dumbest factor I’ve ever heard” has nearly achieved meme standing. I’ve seen it quoted in all places.
We agree. It’s a degree we’ve made many instances over the previous few years. If we get rid of junior builders, the place will the seniors come from? Just a few years down the highway, when the present senior builders are retiring, who will take their place? The roles of juniors and seniors are little doubt altering—and, as roles change, we have to be serious about the sorts of coaching junior builders will want to work successfully of their new roles, to organize to step into roles as senior builders later of their profession—presumably earlier than they (or their administration) anticipated. Programming languages and algorithms are nonetheless desk stakes. As well as, junior builders now have to grow to be expert debuggers, they should study design expertise, and they should begin pondering on a better degree than the operate they’re at present engaged on.
We additionally consider that utilizing AI successfully is a realized talent. Andrew Stellman has written about bridging the AI studying hole, and his Sens-AI framework is designed for educating folks how you can use AI as a part of studying to program in a brand new language.
As Tim O’Reilly has written,
Right here’s what historical past persistently exhibits us: Each time the barrier to speaking with computer systems lowers, we don’t find yourself with fewer programmers—we uncover completely new territories for computation to remodel.
We’ll want extra programmers, not fewer. And we’ll get them—in any respect ranges of proficiency, from full beginner to junior skilled to senior. The query dealing with us is that this: How will we allow all of those programmers to make nice software program, software program of a form that might not even exist at the moment? Not everybody must stroll the trail from newbie to seasoned skilled. However that path has to exist. It will likely be developed by way of expertise, what you may name “studying by doing.” That’s how know-how breakthroughs flip into merchandise, practices, and precise adoption. And we’re constructing that path.
