"New Junior Developers Can't Actually Code"

Key Takeaways

New junior developers can't actually code. Now, that's the title of this article right here that's been popping off recently. It has over a million views. A lot of people have been talking about it on YouTube. And today, I want to give my thoughts on this because it's something that's definitely is pretty concerning and I think relates to a lot of you, especially if you're a beginner programmer or just getting into the field now in 2025. Now, I'm not going to read the entire article, but it pretty much goes on to say that all of the software developers now, especially those on something like a computer science degree, are using Copilot, Clawude, GPT, Cursor, Windsurf, you name it, all the AI tools. And when we actually dig into their understanding of what it is that they're building, even though they're building stuff really fast, they really have no idea what's going on. And they would have no way to reproduce that work if they didn't have the AI tool. The article goes on to talk about things like Stack Overflow and how in the past when you had to struggle through issues and find solutions on Stack Overflow, talk with other developers, read through communities and GitHub issues that you really gained a deeper understanding of software development and that's something that we're losing right now. While I agree with parts of this article and I'll link it down below if you want to read the entire thing, I'm not completely aligned with it and I want to share my thought here on this epidemic of new developers not actually being able to code. We're at a really weird place in time right now where AI is getting so insanely good. It's already massively changed the software development industry and in the next six months, eight months, 12 months, I know things are going to look a lot different. Now, as a junior developer, I understand this must be terrifying. You have no idea what's going on. You don't even know what you should be doing to move forward. And it's really tough to balance using AI with not over relying on it and losing all of those important software development skills. Now, I think what this article was really highlighting, or at least what resonated with me, is that younger developers or new developers getting into the field, are really losing those critical thinking skills that made someone a good developer. The ability to simply write code, which is what LLMs are mostly augmenting for us right now, was never the important part of a software engineering job. Sure, it was a requirement, just like I need to speak English in order to make this YouTube video for you guys. But the point is the difficult parts of the job always were related to a lot of thinking, design, planning, debating various solutions, choosing one alternative over the other, going through and working with managers, project managers, designers, clients. That's the hard part about engineering. And that's why software engineering is called engineering, right? It's not just simply writing a bunch of code. So I want people to understand that if you are a new developer today, it may not be as important to memorize all of the syntax in a programming language. that's maybe not what you want to be focusing on. However, your ability to think critically, to break down problems, to think like an engineer, that's what you get paid for. And unfortunately, so many junior developers are losing that by outsourcing their thinking to an LLM or to AI tools. Now, I do want to dive deeper into this topic, but first, let me introduce the sponsor of today's video, which is Manage Engine Site 247. This is a game-changing observability platform for IT admins, DevOps teams, and developers. In today's fast-paced digital world, ensuring availability and high performance isn't just a nice to have, it's absolutely essential. Now, Site 247 brings you real-time insights into your cloud, DevOps, and infrastructure, allowing you to proactively detect and resolve issues before they impact your end users. Whether you're managing a traditional IT setup or complex Kubernetes environment, site 247 provides deep visibility to streamline troubleshooting and optimize performance. Imagine minimizing downtime and eliminating those frustrating troubleshooting delays. Now, this isn't just any monitoring tool. Site 247 is a complete observability solution, giving you an entire platform that covers everything from performance metrics to proactive alerts. With Site 247, you can be confident that your systems are always running smoothly and your team is always one step ahead. If you're ready to boost your IT operations and deliver exceptional experiences, then I highly recommend checking out Site 24/7. Click the link in the description to learn more and get started today. So, personally, I use AI tools a lot. And over the past 6 months, I have to say I really do feel like my critical thinking ability is slowly weaning away. Before when I used to code, I would sit down, I would think super hard. I would be mentally exhausted. I'd be writing stuff out on the whiteboard. I'd be failing code, recompiling it, running again, debugging, and finding all these complex errors. And recently, what I've been doing is opening up cursor or windsurf, throwing in a prompt, pressing accept all, hopping on my phone, waiting a few minutes for it to finish, and then boom, saying, "Okay, yeah, good to go. This worked." Or there's a bug, fix it. and just kind of prompting, waiting, prompting, waiting, prompting, waiting, and not really thinking that hard. Now, don't get me wrong, there's a few problems that I do think through and I try to keep that skill alive. But I remember back to when I was 17, 18, 19 years old, I used to code for 10, 12 hours at a time. I would hop on the computer, actually use my fingers on the keyboard, write every single line of code manually by myself, and that was a super rewarding feeling. That's how I got really good at coding super fast because I was coding all the time and actually writing code. I would constantly stop and think again. I was getting tired because of how much I was thinking. But I really felt like I was exercising my brain and I was using it constantly. That's why I was able to get jobs young. That's why I had a lot of success on YouTube. And nowadays I just like blindly trust this AI model and I hope that it gives me the right result. Now, can you imagine if you were a junior developer that didn't go through the 8 n 10 years of coding that I've been through manually writing it and now you have these AI tools that can do everything for you. How easy is it to skip all of those fundamental skills to never really flex that muscle in your brain of thinking? And that's the thing that I think a lot of people are missing today, not just in software development, but in life in general, the ability to actually think. I know that I feel like I've been losing it and I'm actively trying to not do that by now actually writing a lot of manual code. But for you guys, I would encourage you if you're just starting out, don't outsource your thinking to these AI models. You can get it to generate code for you, but you should think really deeply about what it's actually doing. Why did it use this type of solution? Is this the correct approach? Debate it. Go back and forth. Some of the best sessions I have are when I have an AI model open and I go back and forth with it and we debate. It gives me a solution. I say, "No, I don't like that solution. That doesn't make any sense. Let's talk about the pros and cons of this. This is my solution. What do you think?" And I go back and forth and use my brain to come up with the best possible route. That's what developers do all day, all the time, and that's the skill that we really need to retain. Now, with that said, I want to get into some specific advice for new or junior developers. Now, I would start by saying, keep up with what's going on. Don't just put your head down and ignore these things. They exist. They're going to change the world. they're going to change this industry. You should be aware of them. You should be experimenting with these AI tools. You should be messing around with them. Don't completely just, you know, put your blindfold on and don't look at them because that's not going to help you in the future. And I've even seen a few posts from people that have done that and end up losing their jobs because they just don't have any more productivity compared to people that are using these tools. Now, with that in mind, if you are going to use these tools, treat them like that. They are a tool. You're in command of this tool. It's your brain. It's your thinking. It's your logical process that gets the code ultimately to the editor. Don't outsource your thinking to these LLM models. Don't turn your brain off or just give up on something when the first bug isn't immediately solved. Be okay getting in there, thinking really hard, being frustrated, struggling, going to the internet and looking up something on Stack Overflow every now and then and not fully relying on these to do literally everything for you. Now, I'm again not going to sit here and say you need to manually write every single line of code because I think that's just not a skill that's going to be as important, but you should definitely understand what's happening and be comfortable debating solutions, telling the AI that it's wrong and it needs to do something else and actually having your own thought process that isn't purely augmented by an LLM. That's the main thing that I'm trying to drive home in this video. The people that retain those critical thinking skills while learning these AI tools are really going to be unstoppable in the future. But the people that just sit there literally like a monkey typing into a prompt and just generating a bunch of code and doing nothing else, those are so easily replaceable. You're not a developer if all you do is just write prompts to an LLM. You're a developer if you can think critically, break down problems, architect a solution, know why the codebase is designed as it is and be able to back up those decisions to other developers that may challenge you on them. Now, aside from that, I will say that I think now is still a great time to be learning software development. As someone who does still have the critical thinking skill, even though I've mentioned it's, you know, slowly weaning away with these AI tools and I'm planning on hopefully maintaining it, I have skills that so many other people just don't have. All these people now getting into software development aren't building that muscle. They're not training their mind like I did for 8 n 10 years. So if you're someone who's willing to put in the hard work, willing to struggle, willing to actually think for once and not augment that to the LLM, you're definitely going to stand out in this industry. And those skills are going to become more and more rare as more people just blindly trust all of the things that these computers are saying to us. Now, I noticed this maybe six, seven years ago when I was working in a summer camp and I had kids that joined my coding program. I could see right away that these kids that were 12, 13, 14 years old, as soon as they had any kind of slight problem, they just gave up instantly. It's like they didn't know how to think. And that's exactly what's happening now with these AI tools that I attribute to things like Tik Tok, lack of attention span, even just schools being quite a bit softer. But I remember when I was a kid, if I faced a problem, I didn't just instantly give up. I tried to actually solve it. I tried to think through it deeply. That's something we've been losing over the years slowly and slowly. And I think we're just seeing that pick up now in this industry and become rapidly kind of an epidemic among new developers. Anyways guys, the point of this video is to say just think, use your brain. It's actually a really rewarding thing. And if you don't use it, you do lose it. And that's the main skill that really is going to carry you forward in life and at least has carried me. So, with that in mind, guys, if you enjoyed the video, let me know in the comments down below. If you disagree with me, I would love to hear about it. So, please leave a comment, and I will see you guys in another one. [Music]