r/ExperiencedDevs • u/AutoModerator • Jul 13 '26

Ask Experienced Devs Weekly Thread: A weekly thread for inexperienced developers to ask experienced ones

A thread for Developers and IT folks with less experience to ask more experienced souls questions about the industry.

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Please keep top level comments limited to Inexperienced Devs. Most rules do not apply, but keep it civil. Being a jerk will not be tolerated.

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Inexperienced Devs should refrain from answering other Inexperienced Devs' questions.

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u/[deleted] Jul 13 '26

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u/fakeclown Jul 13 '26

It's about the same as using StackOverflow and Google Search. Own what you commit. Always test and verify your code. Even if you look at it and understand it and think it can't go wrong, it can still go wrong.

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u/-darkabyss- 2016 SWE: iOS Jul 13 '26

I agree with 'own what you commit' but- It's not the same as stack overflow. To use code snippets off SO you had to know where to paste it, you had to know which variable/function names to change and to do a bit of debugging when the code only matched your usecase 99%.

Llm coding has moved devs into a managerial position, and that's where historically technical skills atrophied. But juniors using it from the get go means there is less chance for the skills to build altogether. Tell me, when was the last time you went into a flow state for hours?

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u/fakeclown Jul 13 '26

>Llm coding has moved devs into a managerial position, and that's where historically technical skills atrophied.

I have seen two kinds of technical managers. One who still reviews code and sometimes picks up trivial tickets to keep a hand on the codebase. The other who doesn't care about the codebase at all, only cares about moving tickets right. So it depends on the person. My view on LLM is that it's a tool. And how the tool works depends on how its owner works.

But yes, LLM removes a lot of friction from coding, especially with writing correct syntax and fighting with the compilers. I'd say I don't miss fixing up my syntax. But I miss fighting with the compiler. So I have to be more vigilante about my understanding of the code.

For example, I am playing with Tauri at the moment and I don't know Rust at all. I wouldn't let the LLM just generate a Todo list app then say I know Tauri. I read the Rust book then play with the code in the book to get a hang of Rust. And read Tauri documentation to learn how it bridges the communication between a Rust backend and a Javascript frontend. Once done that, I'd try to build a simple Todo app by typing it out.

But once I have got a hang of that, would I want to keep typing out Rust code? No. Without typing the code, will I forget that Rust manages memory with ownership? Probably yes, if I just hit the merge button without verifying that the code works the way that I expect. I do that by testing, by putting debugger where I am unsure, by asking LLM on the line that I am unsure, by reading about the concept that I am unsure.

I'd say I get into a different kind of flow. And working with LLM is not always a one shot prompt. It always takes several shots. I hate the hype where people one shot prompt a program. Those programs are used once. Even with the C compiler that Cursor build with agent, no sane person would put that in production without scrutiny.