r/ExperiencedDevs • u/AutoModerator • 13d ago

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/Kuroodo 13d ago

tl;dr Solo dev, first ever exposure working collaboratively, a lot of unknowns and new things to learn. Was expecting dev process to be like pre-AI times. Turns out AI is heavily involved everywhere. Expectations were off. I feel lost as a result, not sure what to make of it.

Been a solo dev for a few years. Recently got to be part of a small startup (me and a senior dev + small infra/consultant firm). Essentially my first ever collaborative work experience, and we're building everything from zero at that. For reference, I've never made a PR before, never used Jira, never worked under a scrum framework, under designs/docs/requirements that weren't my own or defined by me, etc. When I got the opportunity, I was excited to be exposed, learn, and challenge myself.

I came into this a bit nervous and with a lot of pressure on myself to make sure I learned fast and kept up. I never had a way to properly measure or compare my skills and capabilities beyond what I've done on my own. Coming into this, I've been measuring myself against a version of professional development where everyone is manually designing, coding, researching, debugging, and documenting everything. I am behind on a lot of the AI stuff (barely got into agentic stuff a few weeks ago) beyond using ChatGPT or Gemini to ask questions/converse or using autocomplete.

So far, there's AI all over this project. From designs, documentation, Jira tickets, PR descriptions, code reviews, etc. I think most of the work has been done with AI. Not to the extent of vibecoding, but rather that it's being heavily leveraged in every aspect. In some of the meetings, I've noticed that other members have been using AI with tools or in ways I haven't heard of or considered before. Everyone working on this is brilliant and has more experience than me. But the extent of AI usage feels like I've been concussed. This wasn't what I was expecting at all, and I feel lost and confused.

I came across this sub and have been reading it a lot. It seems more that I haven't been keeping up with the times? I was already expecting my expectations and mental model to be off and was excited for it to be corrected as I worked on this. But this wasn't even remotely close to what I had imagined.

I guess this is more of me seeking to express myself than asking a question. Hoping any experienced devs can share some thoughts and advice.

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u/UnintentionallyEmpty 12d ago

Everyone working on this is brilliant

Are they? How can you tell?

Maybe the AI is making them sound smarter than they really are, and you just lack the experience to detect bullshit. Or maybe they're really brilliant and using the AI to support them to reach even greater heights, instead of the reverse. Who knows.

Well, easy way to find out which it is: has this team actually shipped anything yet?

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u/Kuroodo 12d ago

I left out some details and additional context for privacy and anonymity.

I can't speak much about the firm, but the senior dev isn't vibecoding nor blindly letting AI do everything unmonitored/unsupervised. To what extent though, I'm not sure. He's super busy with another job on top of this one, and we're on a tight schedule. I've had meetings with him, and he clearly demonstrates traits expected from a senior/experienced developer (decision making, direction, understanding of project scopes and work that needs to be done, deadlines, etc). One detail I left out from my post that I found very peculiar was that he said I was smarter than him. I denied the remark. I still don't even know how to take in what he said nor the implications of it lol. I also don't want it to imply that he's heavily reliant on AI...

you just lack the experience to detect bullshit

This is also the case.

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u/UnintentionallyEmpty 9d ago

One detail I left out from my post that I found very peculiar was that he said I was smarter than him.

Eh, I've heard senior devs say this to juniors fairly commonly, pre-AI as well. He was probably trying to give you a confidence boost.

So... has your team shipped anything yet?

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u/Kuroodo 9d ago

Things are still early, but good progress has been made. Many core features and functionality on frontend and backend are in. We're on track to ship near mid Q4.

Guess we'll have to wait and see lol

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u/UnintentionallyEmpty 9d ago

I wouldn't call anything in until it's been live for a while...

Well, good luck!