New Junior Developers Can’t Actually Code

Namanyay Goel with a post that appears to be lighting the Internet on fire and is making me feel pretty smart about emphasizing the generational transition at which the software world finds itself:

We're at this weird inflection point in software development. Every junior dev I talk to has Copilot or Claude or GPT running 24/7. They're shipping code faster than ever. But when I dig deeper into their understanding of what they’re shipping? That's where things get concerning.

Sure, the code works, but ask why it works that way instead of another way? Crickets. Ask about edge cases? Blank stares.

Imagine if your doctor had skipped med school, but—don't worry!—the AI tool built into his Epic tablet gave him the right answers to every question that happened to come up during your intake consult and your first physical.

Hopefully you never need anything serious.