A senior engineer argues that junior developers should ignore idealistic advice from the ZIRP era and instead focus on being useful, friendly, and conscientious while learning to use AI as a tool without delegating their own judgment to it. The core message is pragmatic survival: build value through competence and likability rather than fighting political battles you can't win.

• Much current advice from senior engineers is outdated ZIRP-era thinking that assumes abundant investment money and engineer leverage; junior engineers lack the political capital to act on it without getting punished.
• You should use AI tools because your company expects it and you have no leverage to refuse, but never delegate your actual judgment to them—ask questions, disagree when warranted, and understand what you're passing along to others.
• Being conscientious and helpful covers more ground than trying to play office politics or take stands; focus on deep understanding of the systems you work with to build genuine technical value.