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Fix the Ladder
Growing Junior Engineers in the Age of AI
AI can make a junior engineer look senior before they have built the judgement behind the code. Fix the Ladder gives engineering managers and CTOs a practical method for growing that judgement, using AI on purpose, and keeping the next generation of engineers in the team.
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About
About the Book
AI can help a junior engineer ship code that looks senior. That is useful right up to the moment nobody can explain why it works, spot where it will fail, or own the decision behind it.
Fix the Ladder is for engineering managers and CTOs facing a rational-looking choice: use AI to ship faster, hire fewer juniors, and let the old apprenticeship model fade. The short-term maths works. The long-term cost is a team that consumes judgement faster than it grows it.
Giordano Scalzo draws on three decades in software, his LDX3 talk The Confidence Gap, and a mentoring course refined over several rounds with working engineers. The result is a practical method for rebuilding the learning friction that AI removed without giving up the speed it creates.
You’ll learn how to run a weekly judgement course on real code; use AI-off and AI-only exercises deliberately; teach engineers to name, test, and explain complexity; make mentorship a measured deliverable; and defend a junior hiring plan with a business case rather than nostalgia.
AI is not the enemy here. The stronger team is junior + AI + an empowered senior. Because once we start accepting code we did not write, we are all juniors again.
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About the Author
Giordano Scalzo
Giordano Scalzo is a London-based AI and engineering lead, author, and speaker working across AI-assisted software development, mobile engineering, and engineering leadership. He has spent three decades building software, from copying ZX Spectrum code listings as a child to leading teams responsible for mobile products used by millions.
He is the author of six books on iOS and Swift development and has spoken at LDX3 New York, NSLondon, and Londroid. His current work focuses on a practical question: how can teams use AI to ship faster without losing the judgement, debugging skills, and apprenticeship that grow strong engineers?
He is writing Fix the Ladder: Growing Junior Engineers in the Age of AI, a field guide for engineering managers and CTOs who want the productivity benefits of AI while building the next generation of engineers.
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