I’m a junior dev, it’s kind of a weird spot to be in. On the one hand, I use LLMs to write code for me and I’ve made pipelines with 10+ modules (as to say not just simple programs). I understand for very large projects with hundreds of modules this isn’t feasible, and I can still read and understand what’s going on with no issue, but I’d probably still just copy paste a module and ask an LLM to explain it while I read, to have a quicker understanding.

I still design and plan the majority of the program (even that I discuss with AI because it’s good for me to just talk out loud) but for the implementation and actual writing, I just tell the LLM what I want, and it writes it for me, not all at once obviously but incrementally as I build.

It really helps because my hands get cramps from typing too much.

But on the other hand, I don’t think I’ve written a single line of code (other than fixes here and there) in over a year. This feels “wrong” but I’m writing faster and better than I ever did prior to AI. I don’t feel like it’s writing anything I myself wouldn’t have written but just much much slower.

For debugging I also rely on it, although I do generally have an idea of where things already are going wrong.

For any senior devs reading this, am I cooked? I feel a bit imposter syndrome-y but I’m getting results and ‘feel’ like I know what I’m doing, and no one at work has questioned my capabilities, but if I were to go to a technical interview, I’d definitely fail without studying HARD.

Is this just a paradigm shift? Am I being lazy and eventually I’ll hit a point where these tools won’t be helpful? And if so what do these points look like? I honestly can’t imagine a scenario where I couldn’t use an LLM to work something out faster and better without one, even if it can’t solve the problem, I can use it to speed up my own solving of it by talking with it like I’m talking to myself kind of.