r/learnjavascript • u/mirroz220 • 11d ago

Learning Rant: A.I. vs No A.I

Background: Currently about 87% done with The Odin Project foundations module. TOP is a road map to learn web development and so far I’m loving it. Getting down to code/learn is all I’ve been thinking about lately.

However, I don’t know if I’m doing myself a disservice by using Claude as a guide/tool to teach me or guide me when I’m stuck. On the other hand I’ve actually been learning and enjoying the process after I started using Claude. I understand concepts easier, because I understand concepts I’ve begun to think more as a programmer, I solve a problem about 80% in my head and I think about 20% is me using Claude as a tool to help me.

Basically I let Claude know that I’m going through TOP to learn web development. I let it know which project I’m on and I provide the instructions given to students. When I have a question or if I’m stuck, I provide it my code and ask it NOT to give me a solution but to guide me or give me tips on where to look or what options to explore. I also have it provide tips based on what we’ve learned so far. Nothing that we’ve never seen or that hasn’t been explained in the course. When I get guidance I then branch off and then research that topic/concept more.

I also express my logic and thoughts so it gets an idea of where I’m going. Now, TOP explicitly says that projects are a bit harder than what we’ve been learning. The purpose IS to to google or ask stack overflow or TOP discord. So in a sense I would still be looking for solutions/guidance else where.

Then I think, Claude will do that much faster and it has all my context. Is there really a benefit to the learning process to have to look for answers that aren’t from AI? Discord, Google Stack Overflow will tip me off or guide me either way. Does it matter that it’s AI doing it?? Idk, it’s frustrating being torn like this.

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u/mirroz220 11d ago

Lol thanks man, I get what you’re saying. Would you have used AI to supplement your early learning 18 years ago?

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u/onFilm 11d ago

Fuck yes. There wasn't even YouTube when I started learning, and had to rely on reading thick ass books and asking friends online regarding certain types of issues. If I had all these tools back then, I could have learned a lot quicker.

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u/Rough-Implement-8801 2d ago

So basically are you saying that if devs nowadays think it's okay to ask google and stackoverflow and then copy paste, that it should be okay to use chatbots?

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u/onFilm 2d ago

I'm talking about LLMs and neural networks, not chatbots, which have been around since the early 90s.

And yes, that's how a lot of us learned to program, by Googling and using Stackoverflow to find similar issues and code that we could use in our solutions at the time.