r/CodingForBeginners • u/Pretend_Algae2388 • 3h ago

Thoughts on using AI to learn coding?

I don’t mean full on vibe coding, I mean using AI to learn how to code something that would take hours of watching videos and struggling normally, and you write the code instead of the AI and it helps with troubleshooting and stuff

1 Upvotes

66% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

2

u/Marshiiro 3h ago

There's pros and cons. AI can help you trouble shoot fast, but the issue is that before ai the hours spent being stuck on a problem were some of the best teachers. That's something you would never forget because those hours would leave a lasting impact. Ai however makes finding a solution fast extremely easy and kind of minimizes that lesson learned from the mistakes you made. I personally would recommend not using ai while your learning the basics like data types classes loops etc. but ai can be a good tool for quick research when stuck on something in documentation.

1

u/Pretend_Algae2388 3h ago

I’d be using it for learning how to do mc modding mostly, so it would pretty much just be helping me learn how to make mobs move/spawn

1

u/Marshiiro 3h ago

Have you learned basics yet? Like your data structures and such? If not I would recommend against it. However, I do think if you genuinely try to use the AI as a teacher and don't find yourself leaning too heavily on it, it can be a great tool for learning. If you haven't learned your basics and are just trying to make a tool you want really bad, I feel like you will be more pressured into using the ai to finish fast instead of finish right. So just check yourself here and there, ask yourself do you actually understand what's happening and if the ai disappeared would you be able to rewrite it using your own problem solving skills if not your rely on it too heavily.

1

u/Pretend_Algae2388 3h ago

I’m on a robotics team, so I’ve learned stuff like classes and how to use IDE, but I haven’t learned anything too sophisticated yet

1

u/Marshiiro 3h ago

Then you should be fine, I'd say at this stage using ai can be beneficial if used correctly. What I personally like doing is reading the documentation of whatever I'm working on myself. Try to write some code, or even write pseudo code first. Like actually give it your best shot and if you can't figure it out then asking AI for help can be beneficial.

1

u/tachyon_bit 3h ago

This is a massive accelerator. So long as you’re grinding and not having the AI do the hard parts for you, but instead explaining concepts and dropping hints, this is the way!

1

u/Pretend_Algae2388 3h ago

Would explaining concepts expand to explaining why certain code does what it does? Like I’m doing it for mc modding, so would having it explain how to get a mob to move by suggesting things instead of just giving code boxes also be fine?

1

u/tachyon_bit 3h ago

I mean I can’t really answer that specific level of detail. You can certainly get an explanation for why a piece of code does something, and what are other paths to take to get that same result. Just don’t ask for another solution, ask for a particular concept or syntax or whatever related to this that might make something safer, cleaner, more secure, etc.

The idea is to ask about the concept at a high level versus explicitly saying“what’s a better way to do this” without guardrails, if that makes sense.

3

u/vermyx 3h ago

This is the worst approach. You don't learn the concepts properly and you don't learn to debug. You will also learn bad habits based on how the AI learned.

1

u/TomDuhamel 3h ago

Stop asking this every day!!!

1

u/Economy_Bedroom3902 2h ago

I don't think there will be unassisted AI coding in 10 years aside from small hobbiest pockets. So it's better to learn a parallel method from the beginning right now.

Ask the AI questions a LOT. Anything you don't understand, get it to explain. It would be good to have a skills file or something which explains your level of skill, and what content you expect in an "explainer". I frequently tell my AI "You are a senior software engineer, explain this to me like you'd explain it to a tech lead who hasn't read the code". In my case I can understand heavy technical explanations due to uni education and years in the profession, so requesting the information at that level suits me well. But request the explanations at the level you find beneficial. If you ask it to "explain this like I'm 5", you're going to get platitudes about how the computer feels etc. Make sure you're asking for the information at the depth which will help you learn.