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AWS CEO says replacing junior devs with AI is 'one of the dumbest ideas'

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Re: AWS CEO says replacing junior devs with AI is 'one of the dumbest ideas'

#131

Interesting take... I'm seeing a pattern... People think AI can do it all... BUT I see juniors often are the ones who actually understand AI tools better than seniors... That's what AWS CEO points out... He said juniors are usually the most experienced with AI tools, so cutting them makes no sense... He also mentioned they are usually the least expensive, so there's little cost saving... AND he warned that without a…

Sorry but what the heck is up with all the ellipses in this comment?

It's a sort of stream of consciousness. That style of writing goes in and out of style from time to time but some people use it consistently.

Re: AWS CEO says replacing junior devs with AI is 'one of the dumbest ideas'

#133
post #7

Relevant post by Kent Beck from 12th Dec 2025: The Bet On Juniors Just Got Better https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/the-bet-on-juniors-just-got... > The juniors working this way compress their ramp dramatically. Tasks that used to take days take hours. Not because the AI does the work, but because the AI collapses the search space. Instead of spending three hours figuring out which API to use, they spend twenty minute…

How would a person who describes himself as a "full time content producer" know what is actually going on in the industry? https://substack.com/@kentbeck What software projects is he actively working on?

The dude literally invented Extreme Programming and was the first signer of the Agile Manifesto. He's forgotten more about software development than most people on this site ever knew.

Re: AWS CEO says replacing junior devs with AI is 'one of the dumbest ideas'

#135

I - senior - can patch an application in an unknown language and framework with the AI. I know enough to tell it to stop the wildly stupid ideas. But I don't learn. That's not what I'm trying to do- I'm trying to fix the bug. Hmm. I'm pretty sure AI is going to lead us to a deskilling crash. Food for thought.

I think seniors know enough to tell whether they need to learn or not. At least that's what I tell myself!

The thing with juniors is: those who are interested in how stuff works now have tools to help them learn in ways we never did.

And then it's the same as before: some hires will care and improve, others won't. I'm sure that many juniors will be happy to just churn out slop, but the stars will be motivated on their own to build deeper understanding.

Re: AWS CEO says replacing junior devs with AI is 'one of the dumbest ideas'

#136

Interesting take... I'm seeing a pattern... People think AI can do it all... BUT I see juniors often are the ones who actually understand AI tools better than seniors... That's what AWS CEO points out... He said juniors are usually the most experienced with AI tools, so cutting them makes no sense... He also mentioned they are usually the least expensive, so there's little cost saving... AND he warned that without a…

Maybe, but you make it sound like juniors are more worthy to companies than seniors. Then fire most/all seniors and good luck with resulting situation.

Coding in any sufficiently large organization is never the main part of senior's time spend, unless its some code sweatshop. Juniors can do little to no of all that remaining glue that makes projects go from a quick brainstorming meeting to live well functioning and supported product.

So as for worth - companies can, in non-idedal fashion obviously, work without juniors. I can't imagine them working without seniors, unless its some sort of quick churn of CRUDs or eshops from some templates.

Also there is this little topic that resonates recently across various research - knowledge gained fast via llms is a shallow one, doesn't last that long and doesn't go deeper. One example out of many - any time I had to do some more sophisticated regex-based processing I dived deep into specs, implementation etc. and few times pushed it to the limits (or realized task is beyond what regex can do), instead of just given the result, copypasted it and moved along since some basic test succeeded. Spread this approach across many other complex topics. That's also a view on long term future of companies.

I get what you say and I agree partially but its a double edged sword.

Re: AWS CEO says replacing junior devs with AI is 'one of the dumbest ideas'

#137
post #128
post #7

Relevant post by Kent Beck from 12th Dec 2025: The Bet On Juniors Just Got Better https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/the-bet-on-juniors-just-got... > The juniors working this way compress their ramp dramatically. Tasks that used to take days take hours. Not because the AI does the work, but because the AI collapses the search space. Instead of spending three hours figuring out which API to use, they spend twenty minute…

Isn't the struggling with docs and learning how and where to find the answers part of the learning process? I would argue a machine that short circuits the process of getting stuck in obtuse documentation is actually harmful long term...

Isn't the struggle of sifting through a labyrinth of physical books and learning how and where to find the right answers part of the learning process?

I would argue a machine that short-circuits the process of getting stuck in obtuse books is actually harmful long term...

Re: AWS CEO says replacing junior devs with AI is 'one of the dumbest ideas'

#139
post #128
post #7

Relevant post by Kent Beck from 12th Dec 2025: The Bet On Juniors Just Got Better https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/the-bet-on-juniors-just-got... > The juniors working this way compress their ramp dramatically. Tasks that used to take days take hours. Not because the AI does the work, but because the AI collapses the search space. Instead of spending three hours figuring out which API to use, they spend twenty minute…

Isn't the struggling with docs and learning how and where to find the answers part of the learning process? I would argue a machine that short circuits the process of getting stuck in obtuse documentation is actually harmful long term...

It really depends on what's being learned. For example, take writing scripts based on the AWS SDK. The APIs documentation is gigantic (and poorly designed, as it takes ages to load the documentation of each entry), and one uses only a tiny fraction of the APIs. I don't find "learning to find the right APIs" a valuable knowledge; rather, I find "learning to design a (small) program/script starting from a basic example" valuable, since I waste less time in menial tasks (ie. textual search).
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