Struggling to balance learning coding skills while effectively utilizing AI tools

Signals over time

3 observed signals across 1 sources, tracked for 8 days. Confidence: low.

What people are saying Observed

• “I use AI to program at my job but at home I am trying to keep writing everything by hand. It’s very tempting to just let the AI do stuff for me when it gets tiring, especially when tests are failing and I know the AI could fix it for me in seconds while I have to spend hours figuring it out, but I try my best to do it without AI. I just ask the AI questions sometimes for things I would have used StackOverflow in the dark ages. I feel like people need to do this if they want to keep being programmers in the old fashioned way! Junior programmers especially.”

  Hacker News · frustration

• “I feel the same, it sucks. All you can do is carve out a space for yourself doing the things you enjoy, and don't let the AI grifters tell you that AI is the only way and everyone else is "cooked", no one will be writing things by hand, etc etc. God that rhetoric is depressing. I write demos and games as a hobby predominantly for MS-DOS and machines ranging from the 386 up to the Pentium (soon to add 8088/286 to that list) as well as old consoles like the Sega Master System and other random platforms (like ARM-based kids toys like the Leapster Explorer). Right now I'm working on an EGA production. I could just get an AI to generate a lot of the code for me or give me all the answers, but instead, I have my Programmer's Guide to the EGA/VGA/SVGA by Ferraro and another reference open on my desk trying to understand the CRTC so I can create a custom video mode. I live for this stuff and want to fully understand what's going on in the hardware. I like the creative aspects of making demos and games but I also like the technical aspects, and understanding the platform and the deep details. When I spend too much time reading HN or X and see too”

  Hacker News · frustration

• “Greybeard coder here. There are two separate problems you get to solve. 1) If AI writes your code, you didn't learn anything about the code. 2) If you don't use AI, you won't learn how to use AI. You need to learn how stuff works and how to code well. And, you can't do that passively. If you didn't type it with your own fingers, you didn't learn it. And, that includes learning "How to use AI?" You want to learn web dev? Start typing HTML and JS. You want to learn how to use AI? Start typing specs and prompts. You'll need to learn both. But, you can't learn web dev by typing specs and prompts. You can learn using AI as a research assistant, a tutor, a reviewer, a critic. You can use it to bang out quick tools, prototypes, deal with the hassles that are not your focus at the moment. But, whatever you are trying to learn, you need to do the actual implementation manually. There is no such thing as passive learning.”

  Hacker News · complaint