I've been getting the strangest sense of déjà vu lately.
I'm based in the Bay Area, and as I look at the tech landscape today, I'm transported bac...
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Nicely written and it doesn't feel AI written which I appreciate!
I think juniors need to treat programming like someone trying to become a chess grandmaster. Sure you can use an engine to help you in every game but if you lean on it you'll never improve (bad analogy as unlike chess engines LLMs can't beat experienced programmers but you get my intention)
Don't get me wrong AI was part of my process (I like to use Gemini deep research to fact check me and help do research), but this is based on real experiences 💀
Wow, this post gave me literal déjà vu… but in a good way! 😄 I love how you framed the difference between the bootcamp boom and today’s AI wave—your analogy of the “vertical compression” and “pipeline elimination” really hit me. It’s like the tech world is now playing 3D chess while we’re still mastering checkers.
I totally agree: mastering the “why” over just the “how” is more important than ever. AI might write the code, but it can’t yet read a messy legacy repo at 2 AM and make sense of it (at least, not without existential dread). I’m focusing on system design, code review, and understanding the trade-offs behind tech decisions—the kind of stuff that keeps the lights on when AI inevitably hallucinate-generates a “solution.”
Also, side note: I feel seen with that black cat glitch-in-the-Matrix moment. There’s something comforting about déjà vu when it’s paired with the knowledge that, yeah, the game has changed, but the rules of craft haven’t.
I feel sorry for new programmers/developers.
"3D chess while we're still mastering checkers," I might have to steal that line! 😂 You hit the nail on the head with the legacy repo comment. AI loves a perfect greenfield project, but ask it to fix a race condition in a 7-year-old spaghetti code monolith? It falls apart (I've used those internal top-tier coding tools at Meta, and it couldn't handle a lot of cases.)
Junior entry level developers and fresh college graduates should try to build a unique resume for themselves with unique projects and opportunities and stop chasing FAANG companies . In age of AI you need to be more unique and self made .
100% agreed, Ramkumar. The days of the generic "To-Do List" app on a resume being enough are definitely behind us. Standing out is more important now than ever!
This was a really grounding read. As someone still trying to break into the industry, it’s hard not to get overwhelmed by all the “AI is replacing juniors” talk.
But the way you explained the new filter really clicked for me, it’s not disappearing, it’s just shifting. It’s less about typing faster than AI, and more about actually thinking through problems, validating outputs, and understanding the systems behind whatever gets generated.
The “vertical compression” part especially made sense of why the market feels so heavy right now without just blaming everything on AI.
I’ve actually been using AI a lot while building my own projects, and it’s made my workflow way more efficient, but it also makes me realize how important the thinking part is. The AI helps me ship ideas faster, but I’m the one who has to understand the architecture, catch mistakes, and make sure things make sense.
Reading this gave me a bit of hope, honestly. If the new bar is engineering thinking over pure syntax, that feels like something I can grow into.
Thanks for sharing this, really needed the perspective.
I'm really glad this helped ground things for you, Aryan. It sounds like you're already doing exactly the right thing.
I never feel out of place because of AI. I will keep learning and exploring everything, and this progress doesn’t scare me at all. I believe we are witnessing the first wave, where major companies see AI as a breakthrough that might replace employees and many other roles. But in a few years, I think all big companies will realize that no AI can truly replace a human being.
Yes, AI can write code, and we live in a time where we simply cannot move forward without it. Just think about it: decades ago, traveling from one city to another could take ten hours, and now in the same ten hours we can cross an entire continent and even reach China. The world is becoming smaller for us, people are evolving, and we are creating and achieving things faster than ever before.
That’s why you should never give up, and never be afraid—no machine will ever replace a real person. We just need to keep gaining knowledge, keep moving forward, and not hesitate to try something ten times if needed. That’s completely normal.
I hope we can survive this AI wave 💪
I think we will. The tools change, but the need for problem solvers isn't going anywhere.
