It is an uncertain time for software development at the moment. A lot of companies are no longer hiring junior developers while those still employed are spending all their time prompting AI instead of writing code by hand.
Even with AI writing most of the code these days, that shouldn't mean you stop learning and understanding what your code is doing. The less time you spend in your codebase the more distant you become from it.
The speed that you gain from not having to write the code is soon lost when a critical bug comes in, and you don't understand the code or know where to look.
In the past, I could see a stacktrace from a bug in production and know exactly where the problem was and how to fix it. I have had cases where the time between a critical error occurring on production and a fix being released is a low as 20 mins. That is only possible when you truly understand the code, and it is written in a maintainable way.
Yes maybe an AI agent could find the bug and fix it faster, but there is also a chance that it can't, or it introduces an even bigger problem in the process. Claude doesn't exactly have the best uptime, what do you do when it is unavailable and production has gone down?
This is why it is so important to take the time to keep learning and improving as a developer.
It used to be possible to just learn on the job. You were writing code all day, getting feedback from more experienced developers, and problem solving when you got stuck.
AI has broken that natural learning loop, and therefore it is up to you to take the initiative and spend time to learn something new.
For me that means learning a new programming language. I have spent most of my career being a C# developer but with everything getting rewritten in Rust it feels like the right time to jump ship.
I generally learn best from books, but it can often feel a bit too passive. Yes I can do the exercises at the end of the chapter but have I really learnt what I have just read?
I have recently discovered ExpertEdge from Packt that turns all of their in-depth books into step-by-step learning paths by role, with quizzes along the way to test your understanding.
I already own quite a few Packt books that I have collected over the years, but it is great to have access to all of them and be able to work through them in a course format.
I am currently working through the “The Rust Programming Handbook”, and then I plan on doing the course on “Rust Web Programming”.
With over 3000 courses they have something for everyone. You can try it free for 7 days, and with my code ALEXHYETT50 you get 50% off the yearly plan.
If you are using AI to write all the code, then how are you going to differentiate yourself from all the other developers if you don't understand what it's generating?
Whether it be system design, DevOps, architecture, or data science there is still a lot to learn to be a good software developer.
While everyone else is letting their skills deteriorate, you can stand out by being the one that actually understands everything.
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