Just learn it, you’ll be better with it in the long run

AI saves hours on trivial work like CRUD and parsing: describe what you want and it ships the code. It does not save you when you need to connect systems, optimize processes, or research a new domain, and that is where fundamentals matter.

I use AI for everyday tasks too. Today at a café I watched my desk mate do the same, but he kept prompting the AI to fix basic issues. These were trivial problems like centering elements in CSS or forgetting to include an onClick handler.

“What a clown, why not learn it and you can fix it yourself,” my inner voice said.

I didn’t want to start a confrontation with someone I met at the café, nor did I want to discourage young, aspiring software engineers. AI needs more context to work well, and saying “It’s still not centered” in your prompt will not fix the issue on the first try. If you do not want to understand how components work together, software development will keep frustrating you.

Why fundamentals still matter #

I don’t know every CSS rule, but I care enough to learn how some of them work and how to fix bugs. This situation reminds me of Jonathan Blow’s talks: it feels like things are starting to unravel.

On one hand, experienced developers benefit from AI. On the other, new programmers seem clueless without it.

What a world we live in. I hope this individual finds this post thought-provoking.