What ChatGPT launches, a lot of junir devs started using it for most of their work. Let me tell you how I almost fell for the same trap.

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The post discusses the impact of ChatGPT on junior developers, especially focusing on how they respond to its suggestions. It identifies the challenges and potential pitfalls of relying heavily on AI tools for coding, emphasizing the need for cautious and informed use.

The siren song of ChatGPT and junior devs that listen to it

Interesting.
I had something similar, today. A client wanted advice on a SQL (kind of) request, because it was overly complex and and failed if a particular value was null… I struggled a big, but instead of asking to our DBA, I used Perplexity to transform my ideas into something correct in SQL. A well crafted question gave me a good answer, and… I felt like a fraud for 1.5 seconds.
In the end, I realized there was other errors in the logic, and continued to use Perplexity as a doc, checking the official website when I had doubts, and finally came up with a definitive answer. And do you think I shared it with my client? Nope!
I shared the functions, an example and general ideas, so the client makes this himself, realizes it is much simpler than what he was doing before, and much more maintainable, and I hope he realized he should correct also all his previous requests the same way!
GPTs and Perplexity are a great help, but I also think the way we use them is important. Crafting a good question forces you to think about it. Asking parts and chunks of what you need help you make a better code, and doesn’t share any confidential data. Asking if there is a risk a request doesn’t work as intended on older version is also a use case. Even asking a variant of a code, to compare with yours, can help you improve!
As developers, our challenge is to continue learning, so we should use AI to create better, new or optimized code rather than to code faster. In the long run, it will make us stronger, and also make us good AI users, a skill that will prove to be not that frequent!

ChatGPT just like Clean Code, Clean Architecture, Design Patterns, Certifications, Boot Camps…
You are not trained to think, you are only trained on what others told you and you have no idea if it is even productive or not?
You probably think you are very productive because you have no reference and everyone else is doing it so it must be good. However, if you compare it to what GenX did 10 years ago and can still do, then your way of working is bloated as hell, just like ChatGPT code.

Great read. I am also a junior, who is using ChatGPT for speeding things up, but I found myself in situations, where I pasted my assignment and let it code for me. Now I try to use it more like a mentor, as I do not want direct solutions but guidance to the right path.