How can newbies make proper use of AI and still be good developers?
4•Doublentender•4h ago
Right now in many communities there are mixed messages regarding beginners and use of AI, some say that you should stay away from it and others suggest getting jumping right in, so as not to stay behind. So I feel that there are many people like me who are confused and kind of unsure on how to proceed. If you use AI heavily in your work or personal projects, I would love to hear your suggestions.
Comments
VirusNewbie•3h ago
> So I feel that there are many people like me who are confused and kind of unsure on how to proceed.
Don't let AI write the code for you and send diffs when you're a newbie.
Use it to understand, to ask questions, use it like a better stack overflow/google, but don't copy/paste chunks of code.
If you do have it generate more than a single line, mess with it, change it around, type it in but change the way it works, see if there's other method calls that would do what you're doing, see if you can refactor it.
Basically, don't just get into a copy/paste loop. The same thing happened when Stack Overflow became big, you had a whole generation of code monkeys who could copy-paste something sorta working from stack overflow/googling, but when something broke, they had no clue how to fix it.
Copy-paste here (or having it send diffs) is the evil part, not the AI. AI can really help you learn new tech. Have it do code reviews, have it brainstorm ideas, or have it even find the right apis for you, Just don't copy paste!
mikewarot•1h ago
You said it better than I was going to!
Also, you can ask the AI to review your code, and it won't give you grief like the Internet would. You can ask questions without the need for asbestos underwear.
nmilivo•12m ago
Agree with both of the above. Two things I would add:
- Translate the problem you are trying to solve into the most generic terms possible, and then translate the AI response back into the problem you are trying to solve. AI suggests the tools for the job, you decide (and understand) if and how they get used.
- Read the docs on whatever features it is suggesting. Or use AI to help understand the docs. Once you've learned syntax, the two "technical" parts of coding are algorithms and features, both of which are documented. AI is really good at reading docs (hence the natural language processing part of natural language processing). Use it to help you read the docs.
VirusNewbie•3h ago
Don't let AI write the code for you and send diffs when you're a newbie.
Use it to understand, to ask questions, use it like a better stack overflow/google, but don't copy/paste chunks of code.
If you do have it generate more than a single line, mess with it, change it around, type it in but change the way it works, see if there's other method calls that would do what you're doing, see if you can refactor it.
Basically, don't just get into a copy/paste loop. The same thing happened when Stack Overflow became big, you had a whole generation of code monkeys who could copy-paste something sorta working from stack overflow/googling, but when something broke, they had no clue how to fix it.
Copy-paste here (or having it send diffs) is the evil part, not the AI. AI can really help you learn new tech. Have it do code reviews, have it brainstorm ideas, or have it even find the right apis for you, Just don't copy paste!
mikewarot•1h ago
Also, you can ask the AI to review your code, and it won't give you grief like the Internet would. You can ask questions without the need for asbestos underwear.
nmilivo•12m ago