Introduction
My story
I have been a junior developer for nearly 3 years which shouldn't have happened. This is because I have no understanding of fundamentals and cause I've been using AI forever. I started programming in 2022 around July, that is when I started learning.
I was very committed to the craft that I would spend hours learning html and CSS until I got the hang of it. I then moved on to JS, by then, I had already registered for a diploma course in software development at an institute.
I was very technical compared to my class mates, I believe that is because of the effort I put in. My love for the craft played a huge role as well. The same year openAI released their first model, which initially, was only adopted by a few. I was amongst the few.
A year later as I completed the course, I had fully integrated AI into my workflow. I would ask it to generate my code and I even built my academic final project with it. Sadly, I brought that habit with me, and years later I admit that it was the wrong choice.
I would argue that my skills have been plummeting ever since. I have almost completely sourced my thinking to AI models, which in return, has affected my growth. I am habitually lazy, and AI models have made me lazier. This comes at great cost, I can't think for myself anymore. My ideas aren't mine, and neither are my lines of code.
Hot takes
Writing code is a craft, and building something from your own thinking is a form of art. We seem to have lost the spark of thinking, the art of building. I don't want to delve into hypotheticals but how many would be left standing if all the AI models were scrapped. Only a few.
Controversy/conspiracy?
I'm not a conspiracist, but I do believe that these AI corporations won't mention names, are deliberately actively trying to makes us fully dependant on their models. They're designing a society that cannot function without AI, creating a problem only they can solve.
Manufactured demand - Classic Nestlé playbook.
Sooner or later, AI will be integrated into our lives, like tea and coffee. Who's to say what the AI corporations might decide next? At the end of the day, profits is what they're all after, if not that then probably worse, control. If AI does the thinking for you, they control the narrative.
With that said, I'm not going to take away from the fact that AI has the potential to do good. If you're a junior, it has the ability to be your senior developer. You can learn from it. If you're a senior dev, all you literally have to focus on is monitoring, and the system design and architecture.
Vibe coder trigger!
However, I believe that AI is doing more harm than good. In a few years time, the number of senior developers will shrink, I'm talking about people who can actually develop reliable software and design systems that function, with or without AI. Anyone can ship today, but who's going to pay the tech debt tomorrow? Actual developers.
I am done letting AI do the thinking for me. I am going back to old school. I'm switching off auto-complete, I am no longer directly copy pasting from Claude, I will not be part of the Agentic coding cult. If you're a junior dev... neither should you.
Actual developers are going to be in demand, you won't be one of them if you can't function without AI, take back you're thinking, embrace the learning curve, it will pay off eventually. Say no to AI for now, until you can comfortably build with out it.
Conclusion
Building software is an art like any other, you can't call yourself an artist if you're not the one drawing. In a world full of vibe coders claiming to be developers, be an actual artist and build your own craft.
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