Claude Sonnet 4 And The Future of Junior Devs - Day 3 Log

Sonnet 4 — A Thin Thread Holding a Sword Over Our Heads
I think it’s been more than a week since Anthropic launched Sonnet 4, and today, I got to experience its superpowers. It works like a junior dev — but on steroids.

All thanks to my cousin who made me use Sonnet 4. Later, I decided to cut open my gut.

After watching a couple of videos and seeing how it handles huge codebases, it made me wonder about the future of devs, especially junior devs. But before I start my rant of the day, I want to give you a quick overview of a conversation I had over 10 months ago with a Senior Software Engineer working at a very good XYZ company.

At that point in time, I was looking for a job as a junior dev. But getting no response on my resume and having little to zero personal network in the tech industry, I had no option other than to build a network myself.

And guess where I went to do that? The almighty platform that's worse than Lord Facebook — a place you can’t stand but at the same time can’t leave.

It’s LORD LINKEDIN.

I had made around 700 connections, but personally, I knew only 3 out of 700 people. Which is quite good… right?

There I met this guy — a senior engineer. He eats, drinks, and sleeps tech. At that point in my life, he advised me:

“DON’T COME INTO TECH. YOU’VE CHOSEN THE WRONG INDUSTRY TO START YOUR CAREER. COMPANIES ARE RELUCTANT TO HIRE JUNIOR DEVS AT THE MOMENT BECAUSE OF SATURATION AND AI. COMPANIES ARE TAKING A BET ON EXPERIENCED DEVS — DEVS WHO KNOW HOW TO USE AI WELL AND GET AWAY WITH THE WORK OF JUNIOR DEVS. DON’T INVEST MORE THAN 6 MONTHS TO FIND A JOB. IF YOU FIND ONE... GOOD. IF NOT 🖕”

And I, being a good listener, took his advice seriously. I stopped looking for a job 3 months ago and started freelancing 🙃

The Rant

After watching Sonnet 4 in action today, I felt he was right. But my bruised ego doesn’t want me to stop. Even if I want to leave tech... I can’t. I don’t know what else I could monetize — except maybe being a mechanic at a repair shop. (I love working with cars and bikes.)

So to outperform this Sonnet 4, I went back and asked GPT, “Your cousin is trying to steal the bread from my plate. How can I not let him do this?”

ChatGPT:

You're asking one of the realest and most relevant questions right now. AI like Sonnet 4, GPT-4, and Claude is shaking up software development big time — and it will impact how jobs, freelancing, and learning to code evolve in the coming years.

Let’s break it down rationally — not fearfully:

⚠️ Yes, AI can write & fix code fast. So what's the point of coding then?

Here’s the truth:

🔥 AI is not killing coding — it's changing the role of developers:
You're no longer just a coder. You're now a problem solver, a system architect, and a creative builder.

AI can do the “typing” part, but not the thinking (yet). You still need:

• Systems thinking
• Product sense
• Debugging + design skills
• Business logic
• Real-world implementation decisions

🧭 So what should you do now?
✅ 1. Learn to code — but don't stop at syntax

• Learn how systems work, not just how to build "To-Do Apps"
• Focus on architecture, scalability, and real projects
• Use AI tools with you (not against you) — treat them as teammates, not enemies

✅ 2. Build a unique developer edge

• AI + Human = 100x Dev — people who know how to use AI to build fast and smart will win
• Learn to:
• Prompt like a pro
• Use AI for debugging, scaffolding, testing
• Review and understand AI’s output (because it's not always right)

💼 What about freelancing?
🤖 AI is flooding low-skill freelancing markets

• Simple CRUD apps, landing pages, basic bug fixes? AI can do that.

• But clients still need humans who can:

• Understand their business logic

• Talk to them

• Design systems and solve unexpected problems

• Deliver quality and maintainability

👉 You must move up the ladder:

• Don’t just be a “doer”
• Be a consultant, solution provider, AI-native developer
• Build a strong niche: e.g., "I help e-commerce brands optimize their backend using serverless and AI tools”

🔮** Future-proof Roles (2025–2030):**
Role --> Why it survives
AI-Augmented Developer --> Fastest builders, best at debugging & integration
System Designer / Software Architect --> Thinkers behind the scenes
DevOps + Infra + Cloud Engineers --> AI still sucks at networking, infra, & CI/CD
Freelancers with niche & branding --> They build trust + provide value, not just code
Product engineers (with UX + business sense) --> Who build with impact, not just features
🧠 Bottom line:

• Coding is still worth it — but only if you go beyond surface-level
• Use AI like a jetpack — not a replacement
• Freelancing is viable — if you build your brand, niche, and deliver beyond just code

If you fear AI, you'll lose. If you embrace AI, you'll outpace 95% of devs.

The way it has answered my query, we have to have
✅Systems thinking - Role more inclined towards an architect
✅Product sense - Role inclined towards a product manager
✅Debugging + design skills - Role of a dev (Thank God!!)
✅Business logic - Role similar to a business analyst
✅Real-world implementation decisions - can be right only if you understand your target audience well (I feel)

So, mastering your craft as a dev is one thing, but having a broad overview of all the other things mentioned above seems to be the only way to kickstart our career as developers.

Now, this is not a senior dev giving advice.
This advice is given by one AI to face the problems created by another AI.

How much of it is true? I don’t know.

A sword is hanging by a thread over our heads, and we have no other option but to embrace these changes.

What could be the best direction to move towards?

Well, if you’re a senior dev reading this article with years of experience, your 2 cents (please comment below) could help people like us. (Yes, me included.)

The Progress
I’ve made a bit of progress with the course, but mostly my time was spent refactoring the previous code.

I did nested routing and linked different components through routes. It made the code look more scalable and structured. I also set up a small backend on Node.js to store real-time data entered on the client side.

Also, the headphones are detected by the system now. The PipeWire installation has done its work.

That was all I did today, and before leaving, I’ll quench your thirst for some tech nectar. You guys deserve that for staying so long with this article.

Do you guys know why we use <Link> from react-router-dom as anchor tag <a> can do the same work as <Link>?

On the surface, it looks like both <a> and <Link> from react-router-dom do the same thing—navigate to another page. But they work very differently in a React application, especially in a Single Page Application (SPA). Here's the key difference:

When you use a plain HTML <a> tag:

<a href="/about">About</a>

Clicking it causes a full page reload. This:

• Reloads the entire app
• Loses app state (e.g., scroll position, form data, variables)
• Is slower because the browser reloads HTML, CSS, JS, etc.

The Advantage of <Link> from react-router-dom

import { Link } from 'react-router-dom';

<Link to="/about">About</Link>

When you use <Link>:

• It prevents full page reload
• It updates the URL using history.pushState behind the scenes
• It allows React Router to handle the routing internally
• The current state of the app stays intact
• It makes the app feel faster and more responsive

Now what is this history.pushState?

It’s your homework for today. I’ll write about it tomorrow — so stay tuned!

My fingers are numb now (today’s workout was insane).

Abhay Raj, signing out
📅 June 3, 2025