We asked and our colleagues have answered. Enjoy reading!
"AI is already helping me with small, isolated problems or generating test data, for example."
When I look at the drafts or changelogs of languages and frameworks and see the benefits of the new possibilities. It also makes me happy to see well-written code from other developers and also from my apprentices.
Relatively little, because I neither shy away from elaborate refactorings nor do profound breaking changes give me a headache. I also like to explain the same things to my trainees again and again if I have to. The regular keeping of the time sheet is still the most annoying thing for me.
Turn on my computer, get coffee, open the window, check PRs, check mails/Teams, start the backend, start the frontend.
Assistance by AI. Even if complex problems and requirements within the business logic of a project cannot yet be solved satisfactorily by AI, it already helps me with small, isolated problems or when generating test data. AI also supports me in training new techniques which need to be learned.
"It happens very often just when you are doing something else, like showering, eating, cooking or whatever, that you suddenly unexpectedly have an idea how to solve some kind of problem."
When, after three hours of headaches, you reach that one point where suddenly everything makes sense. Or when I've had too much caffeine.
Pointless automated tests that are just "expect(true).toBe(true);" with extra steps. For all non-developers: this is like testing every day whether gravity still exists.
I don't know if you can call it a tick, but it happens very often that you are doing something else, like taking a shower, eating, cooking or whatever, and suddenly you have an unexpected idea how to solve some problem that you couldn't solve before.
A full desk on which only 50% of the things are necessary to work.
Put most simply: websites and app interfaces. Alternatively, you could say that we are responsible for constructing the interface between humans and machines. We help people to communicate with machines.