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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'

#351

Post by lkjdsklf »

47928485 wrote: post #211
tyre wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a really good and under appreciated point. My recommendation to mid-level, senior, and staff engineers is to keep questioning decisions and create a culture where that’s encouraged. Junior devs do that naturally (if you have the culture) because they don’t know anything already. It’s great

> My recommendation to mid-level, senior, and staff engineers is to keep questioning decisions and create a culture where that’s encouraged. Tell me you've never worked at FAANG without telling me you've never worked at FAANG...

I’ve worked at a couple FAANG and questioning things is pretty much always viewed as a positive when it’s done in a productive and professional manner

What isn’t viewed positively is when you refuse to accept a decision after it’s been made and your concerns have been heard. People get pissed if you keep relitigating the same points over and over again

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

#352

Post by siliconc0w »

"AI will replace software developers"

"If your seniors are resisting AI and saying it doesn't work, replace them with AI-native engineers!"

"AI will replace all junior software developers"

"AI will be a tool to help junior software developers"

Eventually we will get to:

"AI requires and will likely to continue to require pretty heavy hand holding and is not a substitute for building and maintaining independent subject matter expertise"

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

#354

Post by [deleted] »

dclowd9901 wrote: post #104
bdangubic wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what is a larger issue ? lacking domain knowledge? or lacking deeper understanding of years of shit in the codebase that seniors may have better understanding? where I work, there is no issue that it "too large" for a junior to take on, it is the only way that "junior" becomes "non-junior" - by doing, not by delegating to so-called seniors (I am one of them)

"Larger issue" is overall technical direction and architecture, making decisions that don't paint you into a corner, establishing maintainability as a practice, designing work around an organization's structure and habit and so on. But these are the things people learn through experience and exposure, and I still think AI can help by at least condensing the numerous books out there around technology leadership into s…

[deleted]

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

#356

Post by thinkingtoilet »

amrocha wrote: post #244
simonw wrote: 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…

I disagree. In my experience AI does most of the work and the juniors already poor skills atrophy. Then a senior engineer has to review AI slop and tell the junior to roll the AI dice again.

I've seen it go both ways. As usual, a good manager should be able to navigate this.

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

#357

Post by fireflash38 »

beAbU wrote: post #128
simonw wrote: 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...

The problem isn't that AI makes obtuse documentation usable. It's that it makes good documentation unread.

There's a lot of good documentation where you learn more about the context of how or why something is done a certain way.

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

#358

Post by fn-mote »

iwontberude wrote: post #236
47928485 wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My recommendation to mid-level, senior, and staff engineers is to keep questioning decisions and create a culture where that’s encouraged. Tell me you've never worked at FAANG without telling me you've never worked at FAANG...

Usually the people who question decisions are shot down because they don’t have a wholistic understanding of the decision and (respectfully) don’t have good arguments. This is only because they are focused on some narrow aspect of the business which distorts or reduces their visibility and understanding.

This is definitely a best case scenario.

As important as I think questioning is, there’s another side of it where people push their own agenda with questions on topics that were decided by other/more senior people hashing it out. At some point this does need to be dealt with. All I see is the yapping questions wasting meeting time, though.

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

#359

Post by flyinglizard »

alexgotoi wrote: post #192

The thing people miss in these “replace juniors with AI” takes is that juniors were never mainly about cheap hands on keyboards. They’re the only people in the org who are still allowed to ask “dumb” questions without losing face, and those questions are often the only signal you get that your abstractions are nonsense. What AI does is remove a bunch of the humiliating, boring parts of being junior: hunting for the r…

Good juniors are also great at just working. Usually no family so they are able to put in a lot of attention into work and they have that innocent curiosity and can-do in them which brings a lot of positive energy.

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

#360

Post by globalnode »

rukuu001 wrote: post #299
rsanek wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"without losing face"? What culture are you referring to? The Western companies I have worked at do not discourage such questions -- in fact, it's often the sign of someone very senior when they ask a seemingly 'dumb' question that others have taken for granted.

Think of highly competitive environments where looking foolish can be weaponised against you. They definitely exist here (my experience in UK and Australia)

some of the descriptions above of thoughtful supportive work places where people are free to explore different ideas and question assumptions sound like paradise.
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