So, I’m still fairly new to this dev thing—five years full-time, now a senior dev.
I was recently told to pick up Angular for a new project at work, but honestly? I’ve been letting AI do a lot of the heavy lifting. My manager knows exactly how I’m working and is happy with the pace, mostly because my tickets are getting closed right on time.
I give the agent full access to the codebase, but I’m strict: it’s never allowed to push changes directly. It just gives me suggestions, and I review them before pasting anything into the files.
I’ll admit, the logic it spits out makes sense, but I’m definitely not the one who wrote it. It works, mostly because I keep the agent on a very tight leash. I’ve even started using it for code reviews, and it saves me so much time. I genuinely feel like I couldn't do this job half as fast—or as well—without it.
Now, the app is nearly ready after months of development, and I can’t say I’ve learned a hell of a lot about Angular. Should I have? Or is that just my ego talking? What’s the actual value in hand-typing boilerplate just to "learn" it, when the agent can build it for me in seconds anyway?
I do feel like a fraud sometimes, like I’m nothing more than a "vibe coder." I spent six years at uni and another five working full-time, but am I really any better than a vibe coder?
I like to think so, but the doubt creeps in now and again.
What do you think?
Top comments (2)
You're definitely not a fraud. As long as you understand the logic and take responsibility for what’s being implemented, you are doing your job.
Thanks Thaísa, I guess dev work is evolving at a fast pace and we can't ignore just how much AI is changing not only the work we do but also the expected rate of output from employers.
Your right though, as dev's we still hold value in ensuring quality control is maintained with the code that we commit. At the end of the day, it's still our names on the git history of the commit and we are still ultimately responsible for it.