As a junior dev in the AI-agent era (who needs to get a job soon), I've had to sit between actually learning to code and falling under the pressure of coding with AI (with absolutely no idea what I’m doing!).
Almost every content on youtube screams “coding is dead! Why learn to code in an era where code is cheap?!”. Every job description defines an Engineer who is able to 5x or 10x their productivity with AI agents. Yet, as a junior who barely understands concepts enough to build from end-to-end, I want to know exactly what I’m doing to build with confidence but I also do not want to live under a rock while the world is moving with great speed. So I have to create a balance.
Well…this is what I have come to be at peace with:
1️⃣ That learning to code is still important
2️⃣ That AI is not my enemy.
3️⃣ That I can do both.
✅ Learning To Code Is Still Important
I think for the longest time (before the AI era) coding was an art. It was a thing people enjoyed doing, even as a hobby. A thing many would still enjoy doing without being paid, and a way people got their brain stimulated.
Coding keeps you learning everyday which is very healthy for the brain. You meet blockers, stay on them, figure things out and then comes the adrenaline rush! The reward for an accomplishment you’re proud of!
You’re able to explain every concept of what you build because you own it, and you’re able to trace and figure errors when they appear.
But then, coding is just a part of an entire product cycle and most implementation can be time consuming. Teams still have to figure things like the design, technical, business and even marketing needs of the products they’re trying to build. This is where AI comes in.
✅ AI is not an enemy
Businesses want to ship fast, get users feedback and improve on the product. And staying on a feature implementation for a long time is not going to help achieve that.
AI is a tool or that assistant whose major strength is speed but would still require your judgement for how things are done.
It helps with the mundane and repetitive tasks so you can focus on the things that matter.
But if AI has to rely on my judgement, how do I figure what is wrong if I do not even know what is right in the first place?
✅ Learning to code alongside AI - (Finding a balance)
Learning to code teaches you to know what is right, so you can easily spot what is wrong when you see it.
So here is how i’m attempting to find my balance (learning to code alongside AI):
I will keep learning to build from scratch while using AI to understand concepts better and faster.
At a point where I feel comfortable with a coding concept, I will delegate that part to AI (verifying the output ofcourse), while moving to more difficult concepts I have to learn.
At another point where I’m even more confident with my coding skill, I will delegate a larger chunk of my coding tasks to an AI agent (using a specification). While verifying, and focusing on more crucial aspects.
With these in mind, I wouldn’t feel like an Imposter using AI agents anymore, but a dev who knows her onions and still needs to 10x her productivity.
And if you’re in a state like mine, I hope this helps you too
If you read uptill this point, thank you so much for staying around…I plan be here more often sharing stuff around AI, Agents and Frontend (coding in general).
I promise to share more practical stuff as I explore (just needed to get this particular thoughts out here today!).
And if you’re a junior dev also learning in this era I’d love to here from you!!! Please do well to use the comment section.
