https://metr.org/blog/2025-07-10-early-2025-ai-experienced-o...
Since that study demonstrated that experienced developers currently suffer a decline in their productivity when using LLMs, it's perfectly likely that less experienced/junior developers who normally will struggle with syntax or simple tasks like organizing their code are the ones experiencing the boost of productivity from LLMs.
Thus, it seems the devs benefitting the most from LLMs are the ones with the skill issue/more junior/early in their career.
Which group do you belong to?
How open are you to the possibility that it's the other way around? Because the study suggests that it's actually junior code monkeys that benefit from LLMs, and experienced software engineers don't instead get a decline of their productivity.
At least that's what the only available study so far shows.
That's corroborated with my experience mentoring juniors, the more they struggle with basic things like syntax or expressing their thoughts clearly in code, the more benefit they got from using LLM tools like Claude.
Once they go mid-level and above, the LLMs are a detriment to them. Do you currently get big benefit from LLMs? Maybe you are more early in your career?
Once you are very comfortable in a domain, it is detrimental to have to wrangle a junior dev with low IQ, way too much confidence but encyclopediac knowledge of everything instead of just doing it yourself.
The dichotomy of Junior vs. Senior is a bit misleading here, every junior is uncomfortable in the domain they are working in, but a Senior probably isn't comfortable in all domains. For example, many people with 10+ SE experience I know aren't very good with databases and data engineering, which is becoming an increasingly large part of the job. For someone who has worked 10+ years on Java Backends, now attempting to write Pythin data pipelines, Coding Agents might be a useful tool to gap that bridge.
The other thing is creation vs. critique. I often let my code, writing and planning be rewiewed by Claude or Gemini, because once I have created something, I know it very well, and I can very quickly go through 20 points of criticism/recommendations/tips and pick out the relevant ones. - And honestly, that has been super helpful. Using it that way around, Claude has caught a number of bugs, taught me some new tricks and made me aware of some interesting tech.
I know how to use the AI tools for my purpose (that's why i use them), and of course, to make the impossible possible. Even if i failed to do so, it's not the decrease in productivity because without them, i don't think i can do better than the LLM.
Well, it seems you are not open for discussion. There is no reason to disparage the senior devs that participated in the study just because you don't like the results of the study. But the study happened, and it is clear: experienced developers are the ones that suffered from using LLMs.
> but it's just illogical for a junior to get benefits and the seniors don't
Experienced car drivers won't benefit from a youtube tutorial how to drive, junior car drivers might. That's similar to junior developers being potentially the ones who can benefit from the basic things that an LLM can help you with, e.g helping you with syntax and structure your thoughts and write a scaffold to get you started. Those are concerns that experienced developers don't need help with, similarly how experienced drivers don't need youtube tutorials how to shift a gear. There is nothing illogical in that premise. Do you agree?
> i don't think i can do better than the LLM
I most certainly can tell you that there are 1000s of developers that can do infinitely better than any of the current LLMs, and those developers are fairly often senior. It seems like a skill issue you mentioned in the beginning of your post might actually be on your side.
> i don't think i can do better than the LLM.
I could literally teach a below-average-intelligence 16-year-old how to write better code than any LLM I've ever seen - if they're interested and willing to learn.
My understanding is that a code monkey just does what they're told. All the planning and behind the scenes negotiations that the senior devs and management do is completely opaque to them.