this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2026
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Futurology
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At my company, the GenX programmers want to force the new hires to learn to code and debug before they're allowed to use AI. The newbies meanwhile are clamoring for AI. Management gave them access, so we expect they're development to be hindered. At least they can write more bugs per week now. Their sloc metrics are probably better than us experienced folks because we don't trust the AI at all. Management will probably layoff every one that knows how to fix bugs soon.
You forgot the best part. None of those Jr.s are going to learn a thing. Their skills are going to regress. We will draw a line and anyone who learned how to code before Ai and those that learned after will be on distinct sides. The skill gap between those sides will be incredible. The code bases right now have people that understand large parts of it and they can make design decisions based on their context. When people offload that work to Ai, which can only handle a tiny bit of context compared to a human, nobody will understand code bases anymore and it will be chaos.
Yes. And we see this skill gap between folks who learned to code before web frameworks, vs after, as well.
Yes, and it is so frustrating. Last week I was tearing into a stack dump from a crash and one of the entry level kids was watching me. I immediately identified a bad pointer and walked the stack back to the function where it originated and determined that the pointer array index was out of bounds. I might as well have been practicing witchcraft. He had no sense of what a valid address looks like, nor did he understand why that bad address would lead to a bus fault that would throw an exception. The best thing about this particular kid is that he listens and learns. He still wants to code with AI, but he knows the geezers have skills he needs. Probably my favorite among our current crop.
When I came out of school, I had experience in multiple assembly languages, operating system theory, compilers, and computer architecture. All areas where his knowledge is lacking. I am sure he knows lots of things I don't, but I haven't done a great job of identifying areas where those skills are applicable. I am pleased with his willingness and aptitude to learn. He'll be fine, but I don't have that confidence in a lot of them.
(I should remember this post when I have to write performance feedback for him.)