Senior Developer Skills in the AI Age

I agree, and I really like the concrete examples here. I tried relating it to the concept of “surprise” from information theory — if what the LLM is producing is low surprise to you, you have a high chance of success as you can compare to the version you wrote in your experienced head.

If it’s high surprise then there’s a greater chance that you can’t tell right code from wrong code. I try to reframe this in a more positive light by calling it “exploration”, where you can ask follow up questions and hopefully learn about a subject you started knowing little about. But it’s important for you to realize which mode you are in, whether you are in familiar or unfamiliar waters.

https://royalicing.com/2025/infinite-bicycles-for-the-mind

The other benefit an experienced developer can bring is using test-driven development to guide and constrain the generated code. It’s like a contract that must be fulfilled, and TDD lets you switch between using an LLM or hand crafting code depending on how you feel or the AI’s competency at the task. If you have a workflow of writing a test beforehand it helps with either path.

https://royalicing.com/2025/test-driven-vibes