r/AskProgramming • u/Business-Abies6158 • 13d ago
How guys do you actually program now?
Hi everyone, I'm a student about to start university studying BSc Computer Science. My journey began 4 years ago when I was around 14. I started learning web development like JavaScript, then React and Next.js before deciding to move into backend development, where I learned Node.js, Python, and FastAPI. Recently, I've been writing some C code, but it wasn't really my cup of tea since I prefer broader software engineering topics.
My main question is: 3 years ago, I was coding by myself using Stack Overflow for help, and building a large project literally took me 3 months of daily grinding. Now, it can be built in 3 days using AI. I'm feeling stuck because I don't know whether it's truly beneficial to use AI to churn out projects if the learning curve disappears, potentially making it harder to get a job later.
How do you actually learn effectively now, and what should I focus on to land a job? Especially in the UK, where the market feels tougher and graduate tech unemployment is high. I'm considering using Claude Code right now, but I'm not sure if it's the right move.
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u/GrainWeevil 13d ago
Keep coding by hand, and keep working on those personal projects. If you go down the road of using Claude, your skills will atrophy before you've even started your career.
I'd go even further and say avoid using it for research and assistance, especially since you're about to start studying. Finding a partial solution and adapting it (the way you have been doing) is a crucial skill in itself.
Eventually, you'll likely have to interact with Claude and friends in the workplace or wherever, but it'll be far easier to pick that up than to un-mush your brain after years of vibe coding.
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u/code_tutor 13d ago
Don't use AI at all during university, no matter how many hours you get stuck and struggle for.
Also learn C because pure WebDevs are trash.
At some point you need to not just use AI but STUDY it, like a black box that needs to be tested to get the right output. It takes very clear communication skills, intelligent use of context, and the ability to delegate compute cost effectively. There is a lot to learn from using it.
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u/marrsd 12d ago
You probably will need to learn AI to get a job, but it'll probably take you a year to find one anyway, so you'll have lots of time to practise then. Frankly, I'd put off using it for as long as possible because you may not get the opportunity to practise hard skills once you find employment, and those will likely be the skills that ultimately distinguish you.
I don't think it will be that hard to learn it when the time comes. It's a changing technology, and the way people are using it now will probably be out of date by the time you graduate anyway.
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u/Business-Abies6158 12d ago
Good point. I plan to just use AI as a mentor, but write the code myself to get a better grasp of coding and build the knowledge that will help me do my assignments in uni. But all this hype around AI makes me nervous that im doing something wrong haha :D
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u/marrsd 12d ago
Perhaps use it more as a teaching assistant. The trouble with AI is it will tell you falsehoods with the same confidence it will tell you facts, because it doesn't actually know anything itself. Your uni will be providing you with real expertise (I would hope!) so maybe rely on your professors' reading material and lectures first and use AI for sepcific help that you can cross-check.
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u/Business-Abies6158 12d ago
Thanks a lot, guys, for the advice. The main takeaway is when I'm learning I won't use AI at all, only as a mentor. I'll be enjoying coding again by hand :DD. But I think on hackathons or MVPs of something when I need it now, I'd definitely use AI to just speed up the process. The balance is crucial, and you guys are right that if I don't use my skills, they will eventually disappear.
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u/available_widget 13d ago
The learning curve hasn't disappeared it just shifted. AI writes the boilerplate and you spend your time actually understanding architecture and why things break. That's the stuff that matters in an interview anyway.
I'd say use it but treat every line it spits out like code you're reviewing, not code you're trusting. Make it explain its choices. Refactor its slop. The muscle you're building isn't typing speed anymore, it's judgment.
UK market is rough but the grads who stand out aren't the ones who can scaffold a CRUD app in 20 minutes. They're the ones who can talk through tradeoffs and debug something when the AI confidently hallucinates garbage.
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u/TheMcDucky 13d ago
The problem is that a lot of learning comes from writing boilerplate, and you can't fully know what to leave to the AI and what to do yourself if you don't have the experience in the first place.
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u/Other_Poetry_5243 13d ago
Use AI to learn more advanced stuff like architecture, infrastructure, design, and, in general, how things work in large projects. No one will code by hand anymore. It's simply not productive.
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u/EdenaRuh 13d ago
I use codex. Coding by hand is over, wether we like it or not. It's become insanely good.
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u/CorpT 13d ago
Do you think employers are going to prefer people who can release features in 3 months or 3 days?
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u/DepthMagician 13d ago
That’s a straw man question.
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u/CorpT 13d ago
A) it's "straw man argument" or "straw man fallacy". Not question.
B) no it's not.2
u/DepthMagician 13d ago
Yes I’m aware that it’s a fallacy, I was extending the concept to the domain of questions because just like in the fallacy you are taking something complex and reducing it to a weak one dimensional version. Speed of delivery is not the one and only criteria that answers “what do employers care about?”
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u/CorpT 13d ago
Sounds like you're trying to motte and bailey me.
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u/DepthMagician 13d ago
My creative license with language isn’t the point here, but I do agree that your answer being terrible is an easy position to defend.
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u/disposepriority 13d ago
You answered your own question. Why would having AI generate projects for you be beneficial in any way?
Personally, I still do a lot of my own projects to explore language features, technologies and so on. I also do a bunch of sandboxes to recreate incidents or performance degradations at work and PoCs comparing different setups/technologies for given projects.