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senior developer agents • Buttondown

explaining.software · 3,192 words · saved by 1 readers

When you're responsible for a junior developer, there's an early, crucial milestone: they know when to ask for help. Before this milestone, every task must be carefully curated. Each day of radio silence — be it from embarrassment or enthusiasm — is a cause for concern. Achieving this milestone can be difficult. It requires the developer to intuit the difference between forward motion and progress. It is, however, necessary; until they do, the developer will remain a drain on their team's resources. And this is what we've seen in the first generation of developer agents. Consider Devin, an "AI developer." Everyone I know who's evaluated it has reported the same thing: armed with a prompt, a search engine, and boundless yes-and enthusiasm, it pushes tirelessly forward. Successful outcomes require problems to be carefully scoped, and solutions to be carefully reviewed. It is, in other words, an intern simulator. In this post, we will be exploring a few different topics. The first is the

November 27, 2024 senior developer agents Code review is about more than checking for mistakes; it is about ensuring simplicity. When you're responsible for a junior developer, there's an early, crucial milestone: they know when to ask for help. Before this milestone, every task must be carefully curated. Each day of radio silence — be it from embarrassment or enthusiasm — is a cause for concern. Achieving this milestone can be difficult. It requires the developer to intuit the difference between forward motion and progress. It is, however, necessary; until they do, the developer will remain a

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