alt Hacker NewsThe "experience as the real asset" point resonates deeply. I've been building agent orchestration systems and the difference between junior and senior use of AI tools is stark.
Juniors prompt "build me X" and get frustrated when it goes sideways. Seniors architect the constraints first - acceptance criteria, test harness, API boundaries - then let the AI fill in mechanical work.
The real shift: AI makes the cost of prototyping near-zero, which paradoxically makes taste and judgment MORE valuable. When you can spin up 5 approaches in a weekend, knowing which one to actually ship becomes the bottleneck.
The folks who defined their value as "typing code" will struggle. The folks who defined their value as "knowing what to build and how to verify it works" are thriving.
The middle-of-the-road approach is to write: "Figure out a good high-level plan for building X". If you're a junior, the plan is going to have things you don't understand all that well. Ask the AI about them.