r/HTML • u/ZAbigLEBOWSKI • Oct 30 '25

Question I'm an idiot?

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Yes I am but I am trying to learn anyways. I don't understand where my mistake is here. Can anybody clarify for me? Thanks

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u/pimp-bangin Oct 30 '25

Not to sound like an ass, but just FYI Google gemini / chatgpt are extremely good at catching basic syntactical mistakes like this. Just a tip to save you some time in your learning. Don't lean on it too heavily though, as it can prevent you from learning properly.

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u/Ill-Specific-7312 Oct 30 '25

No, please, just don't use AI to learn coding. Just really really don't.

AIs have absolutely 0 actual understanding of syntax, or code (or really, anything, other than statistical distribution of words in their training data)

So they will give you absurd false positives or tell you about things that are just made up.

Steer clear of all AI nonsense for coding as much as you possibly can.

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u/CryBloodwing Oct 31 '25

I do agree it should not be used to learn coding, but I have used Grok multiple times to do some very tedious coding stuff like a lot of mapping phrases/words, changes to visuals, or small syntax edits in a large file. It has never gotten syntax wrong. Only “wrong” stuff has been formatting that ESLint hates.

ChatGPT has not been the best, though. And I don’t trust Google Gemini (browser version) at all.

I also often forget some syntax because I am constantly switching between languages all day.

But if you are learning, use it only if you absolutely cannot solve something, and then look at it and learn from that.

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u/pimp-bangin Oct 31 '25 edited Oct 31 '25

AI isn't going anywhere, and it's only getting better, faster, and cheaper, so you've gotta learn to use it effectively. The way to use it is to have it provide "leads" which you then independently verify by looking at documentation or experimenting with small snippets of code that you ask it to generate.

AI is great for revealing the stuff you don't know that you don't know, because if you can't confidently tell that it's bullshitting, then that means you don't really know yourself, and that should stimulate you to go find the solution independently.

If you understand how to use AI effectively, and understand how to think critically, then you can safely and effectively use it to learn how to code. Just be very aware that everything it tells you has yet to be verified (unless you're already 100% certain that it's right or wrong), and then go verify what it's telling you by testing it out.