AI won’t take your dev job (unless you let it)
Just got off the phone with a Senior dev with 10 years of experience. He got fired a few weeks ago. The reason? Management replaced him with a Junior dev using Claude Code. They felt their output was…
Jan 21, 2026 · 3 MIN READ
Just got off the phone with a Senior dev with 10 years of experience.
He got fired a few weeks ago.
The reason?
Management replaced him with a Junior dev using Claude Code.
They felt their output was the same… But the Junior was 3 times cheaper.
So, they kept the Junior and fired the Senior 🥴
The worst part?
Everybody in this situation ended up losing.
The company got cheaper code, which will turn into technical debt… And will be much more expensive to fix later.
The Junior thinks they are smart, using AI to be more "productive"… In reality, their skills are stagnating. Without AI, they won't be able to write a single line of code.
The Senior is now unemployed.
You know what pisses me off the most about this whole thing?
All this could have been entirely avoided!
Sure, the management would still try to cut costs and question the Senior’s value... They don’t know any better.
Sure, the Junior would still use AI for everything... They don’t know any better.
But...
If that Senior dev had been able to make them see just how wrong they are:
- That debugging takes 2x longer than writing code.
- That productivity is not measured by the number of lines of code, but the quality of it.
- That good code, badly architected, is still sh**ty code.
And that Senior devs in the age of AI are just like premium insurance... They seem expensive until you need them.
And when you need them... You will be glad you paid so much for them!
If that Senior Dev had the skills to prove this...
Then he would still have a job by now!
And both the company and the Junior Dev would be a lot better off.
But he didn’t. Why?
Because he doubted himself.
Deep inside, he knew they were making the wrong choice.
But he couldn’t prove why.
Every time they asked him about a technical decision... Why React and not Vue? Why AWS and not Azure? Why load balancers?
He doubted.
So they doubted his expertise... And asked ChatGPT instead.
If you want to be an irreplaceble Senior dev.
Or at least have a job 5 years from now.
You need to make mastering your craft your number 1 objective in 2026!
Not getting better at prompting ChatGPT. Not freaking “context-engineering.” Not waiting for an AI agent to solve bugs that should have existed in the first place!
Real mastery.
Solving problems bare bones. First in your head… Than in code.
You can do this by yourself.
Or you can join a group of like-minded developers… With clear accountability and feedback… And with Bogdan and me as your personal mentors.
Let’s talk and see if you are fit!
If not, at least you'll make a new friend :)
Happy 2026 my dear subscribers!
Hear you soon,
Dragos
P.S. First email of this year! I am 100% determined to keep writing these things… To help you make this year your best year yet as a software engineer! Let’s do this!
