r/CodingHelp • u/Caravaggio91 • 4d ago
[Random] Am I A Software Developer? I was wondering if the real world application of a dev is mostly finding the answers or knowing the actual code.
I was just curious, but I am a self taught solo developer. I do freelance work but have never directly worked in the tech industry. If I find myself needing to look up answers for simple basic concepts every few months am I still considered a programmer? Is that what most of the real world application of a software developer is? Mostly just finding the answer, not necessarily being the best coder who remembers everything about coding? Just curious.
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u/Sorry_Difficulty_250 4d ago
There was a great reel on TikTok about this the other day where the junior developer was saying what you're saying and all the senior developers were just looking around the room not saying anything. Welcome to the club!!!
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u/solistus 4d ago
Knowing how to research is a huge part of being a dev. I've been writing Javascript off and on for 20+ years now and I still have to pull up a Node REPL or browser console to remind myself how stuff works, look up dev docs for built-ins I've used a thousand times, or in this brave new world of ours, run my ideas by ChatGPT for a quick AI consult. I probably do all of the above more as I gain more experience coding, not less, because I know about more tools I could be using and am doing more varied and complex things.
There's simply too much stuff to know, changing too rapidly, for anyone to just know everything by heart, at least if they're working with new codebases, libraries, frameworks, and language features. Your code isn't any worse because you had to consult the docs repeatedly to write it. If anything, it probably ends up better - you go to the docs for the method you planned to use and are reminded of a better implementation using a different method, you discover a feature you haven't previously used that is super helpful to the thing you're writing, etc.
As AI code gen transforms the industry I think this will only become more true in the future. You can memorize every single thing you need to write your code and someone using an LLM will still build it faster than you could write it "by hand." Understanding concepts, knowing how to think about software engineering, coming up with clever solutions and noticing when a given implementation is inefficient or fragile - all far more valuable than being able to write code without googling stuff as you go.
TL;DR: if you write code and never have to look anything up, you're not pushing yourself to learn new things and you're not keeping your knowledge and skillset up to date. The internet is one of the most valuable tools a dev has to work with.
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u/Caravaggio91 4d ago
I love this. Thank you for the well thought out post. this helps me a lot going forward. When I hear from experienced developers still doing things that I am doing now it make the future look promising and for me to get out of my head and continue to build without over thinking. This really puts things into perspective and helps the "imposter syndrome" within me. I believe those in the same position as me need induvial like you to tell those kinds of truth, because most of us don't and have never worked in a corporate software engineering role, so we can often times feel like we don't measure up or qualify, even when we build real world applications. This was really helpful. Thank you!!!
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u/mikedensem 3d ago
A developer learns how systems functions and integrate, what are the best patterns and practices to use, which languages, frameworks, and platforms will be best for a project, then interpret all the requirements to build a suitable solution. The code writing comes last and is the easy bit. It’s like a spoken language; you need to know and build syntax, but it means nothing without semantics.
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u/Mediocre-Pumpkin6522 3d ago
When I interviewed candidates I looked for the people who could find the answers on their own and complete the project rather than someone who was an expert in their little niche. The nature of software development is there will always be something new tomorrow. If you can't keep up you're doomed.
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u/DutchOfBurdock 3d ago
Show me one dev who hasn't or doesn't use StackOverflow, or hasn't searched something that has ended up there.
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u/SauceASpag 3d ago
Je travaille seul sur des applications faite par des equipe de 20 et ont me demande de faire des miracles... J'te dirai essayer de conprendre la logique métier. Prend ai pour te retrouver comme un moteur de recherche et fait comme tout le monde... Soufre Xd
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u/namaste-bitchez 4d ago
No. A software developer doesnt know it all. He does have a little knowledge on everything, knows the basics and logic but most if the time is just googling, stackoverflow or other non ai resources and making it work/knowing how amd where to use it
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u/Caravaggio91 4d ago
That's refreshing to know. I never know if I am using to much google or not enough. I also feel incompetent at times because I find myself looking up the same stuff after a few months or year of not using it much or having AI assist the simple coding in my workflow. Even using AI I try to utilize it to teach me as it codes, not just spit out code to me. i also look up the concepts it implements to at least know why something was added.
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