'Used AI tool to code': Developer's shortcut costs him job
A Reddit post is making waves after a recent college graduate at an AI startup was fired after his changes caused a production bug; the post notes he had used AI-generated changes.
He started out coding manually, but as deadlines got tighter, he turned to Cursor (an AI assistant) to keep up.
This shortcut led to messy code and a production bug that prompted a late-night Slack call about something broken in production—his second big mistake.
The story has sparked debates among developers
The story has kicked off heated debates among developers.
Many say managers are pushing unrealistic deadlines and skipping proper code reviews, basically forcing people to rely on imperfect tools like Cursor (kluster.ai found 48% of code generated using Cursor's auto mode contained issues requiring correction).
For young coders especially, it's a reminder: knowing your basics still matters—even when AI seems like the easy fix.