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?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_Beck
To be fair, even if I appreciate Beck, some people do get too famous and start to inhabit a space that is far removed from the average company. Many of these guys tend to give out advice that is applicable to a handful of top earning companies but not the rest.
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?
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…
first response from me "let me mention how the real business world actually works" .. let's add a more nuanced slice to that however Since desktop computers became popular, there have been thousands of small to mid-size companies that could benefit from software systems.. A thousand thousand "consultants" marched off to their nearest accountant, retailer, small manufacturer or attorney office, to show off the new des…
I'm a little confused by this analysis. Are you saying that all enterprise software has been replaced with MS word and AWS?
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…
It's backpedaling but I don't think it's planning ahead to prevent a developer shortage - rather it's pandering to the market's increasing skepticism around AI and that ultimately the promised moonshot of AI obsoleting all knowledge work didn't actually arrive (at least not in the near future). It's similar to all those people who were hyping up blockchain/crypto/NFTs/web3 as the future, and now that it all came to p…
Week 1: 64 interns Week 2: 32 interns Week 3: 16 interns Week 4: 8 interns Week 5: 4 interns Week 6: 2 interns Week 7: 1 intern Week 8: 0.5 interns Is it possible to make it to the end of the summer without getting sliced in half?
If they don't agree to be turned into a cyborg, are they really using enough AI?
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…
For an experienced engineer, working out the syntax, APIs, type issues, understanding errors, etc is the easy part of the job. Larger picture issues are the real task. But for many Jr engineers it’s the hard part. They are not (yet) expected to be responsible for the larger issues.
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)
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?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_Beck
So? His bio is literally one latest fad after the other. Now he joins the "AI" fad, what a surprise.
These people are working on destroying the planet to make more money, they absolutely do not care. Our society isn't set up to punish them, but encourage such behavior to even more extremes (see datacenter build outs causing water shortages, electricity hikes, and cancer in poor communities; nearly every politician capitulating on such actions because they don't know better).
I wish people would get off the "AI is the worst thing for the environment" bandwagon. AI and data centers as a whole aren't even in the top 100 emitters of pollution and never will be. If you want to complain about tech companies ruining the environment, look towards policies that force people to come into the office. Pointless commutes are far, far worse for the environment than all data centers combined. Complaini…
Of course they aren't polluters as in generating some kind of smoke themselves. But they do consume megawatts upon megawatts of power that has to be generated somewhere. Not often you have the luxury of building near nuclear power plant. And in the end you're still releasing those megawatts as heat into the atmosphere.