There are a lot of people in academia who are great at thinking about complex algorithms but can't write maintainable code if their life depended on it. There are ways to acquire those skills that don't go the junior developer route. Same with debugging and profiling skills

But we might see a lot more specialization as a result

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cmiles74 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Do they need to write maintainable code? I think probably not, it's the research and discovering the new method that is important.

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iterateoften 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

They can’t write maintainable code because they don’t have real world experience of getting your hands dirty in a company. The only way to get startup experience is to build a startup or work for one

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wongarsu 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Duh, the only way to get startup experience is indeed to get startup experience.

My point is that getting into the weeds of writing CRUD software is not the only way to gain the ability to write complex algorithms, or to debug complex issues, or do performance optimization. It's only common because the stuff you make on the journey used to be economically valuable

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iterateoften 2 hours ago | parent [-]

> write complex algorithms, or to debug complex issues, or do performance optimization

That’s the stuff that ai is eating. The stuff I’m talking about (scaling orgs, maintaining a project long term, deciding what features to build or not build etc) is stuff very hard for ai

	▲	8note 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I dont know if id call it "hard for ai" so much as "untreaded ground" agents might be better at it than people are, given the right structure

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tovej 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

What. Are you saying maintainable code is specifically related to startups? I can accept companies as an answer (although there are other places to cut your teeth), but startups is a weird carveout.

	▲	Jensson 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Writing maintainable code is learned by writing large codebases. Working in an existing codebase doesn't teach you it, so most people working at large companies do not build the skill since they don't build many large new projects. Some do but most don't. But at startups you basically have to build a big new codebase.