I recently started managing a junior software engineer - let's call him Sam. Smart guy, but green. He could code, sure, but he needed a lot of hand-holding to stay on track.
To help Sam out, I started writing super detailed tickets for him. I'd break it down into bite-sized pieces: what we're trying to do, how we might do it, what could go wrong - you name it. It was like giving him a roadmap for each task. Sure, it took me a bit more time upfront, but it payed off. Sam's work improved, and I ended up saving hours in the long run.
One night, while wrapping up a detailed ticket, a crazy thought hit me: "Hey, why not toss this whole ticket into ChatGPT and see what happens?"
And holy cow, it actually worked! The AI churned out the entire solution. Sure, there was a tiny hiccup - a small bug - but it was a breeze to fix.
I completed the entire task in just 30 minutes, including the time spent writing the ticket. By comparison, I estimate it would have taken Sam at least 4 hours, potentially up to 8 hours if the pull request required revisions. The efficiency gain was significant.