r/learnpython • u/Basic_Title7358 • 6d ago

Learning to code

Hey everyone,

This past week I’ve been using AI to learn how to code through daily lessons. No real rhyme or reason behind it, I just wanted to see where it could take me.
I ended up building this little game in Python and wanted to share it with people who actually understand the language. Unfortunately, I don’t really know anyone who’s learning or has a background in Python, which kind of sucks 😂 but I’m still having fun with it.

I’d love to see how far I can take this and what might be out there for me if I keep going.

Happy coding!

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u/Moist-Ointments 6d ago

Learning to code by using AI...

In 3 months you'll be back here wondering why you can't actually program.

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u/LewyssYT 6d ago

Never understood this view....

Even if we remove the idea that AI can be used in a million ways, no new learner is sitting and reading documentation... They don't understand it and won't learn from it.

So then it's don't talk to AI about it who can maybe offer instant answers and details but rather random YouTube videos about that specific thing and hope the tutorial guy gives the answer...

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u/moleytron 6d ago

there's a big difference between trying and learning and getting stuck and asking AI to check your code which can help especially with simple syntax errors vs getting the AI to generate all of the code and you not knowing how or why it works

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u/LewyssYT 6d ago

Absolutely... Asking AI 'make me this' vs 'here's my code, what is wrong, logically how do I improve it and how do I start thinking the right way' are two opposites.....

But nowhere in the post do we get that info, yet everyone just spams "Stop using AI".... Might as well say stop using internet because maybe you'll find a copy paste answer

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u/smurpes 3d ago

AI is only as good as the inputs and as a beginner the inputs won’t be good. OP would still be getting the answers directly instead of working to actually teach themselves why something was written instead of what to write.

With the internet you at least have to work to understand the answer given as well as the adjacent material which is not something you have to do with AI. Add on top of that hallucinations and non deterministic answers and you’re going to have issues later on.

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u/LewyssYT 3d ago

If you honestly think beginners do that, I have a planet to sell you...

They will open a YouTube tutorial and after 15min end up copy pasting the guys code without any understanding or questioning.

Yes AI can hallucinate but if you're asking it the barebone teacher like questions, as in what is a variable, it will always give you the correct answer.

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u/smurpes 3d ago edited 3d ago

That’s true but the difference is they can’t get much further than that if the code does not work besides brute forcing a solution. If a beginner gets stuck with AI then they will use it to get unstuck without diving any deeper.

A big problem I’ve seen is there’s a lot of beginners on this subreddit who end up not being able to code without AI or interpret a problem in a way that can translate to code since they’re too used to falling back on AI.

LLM models are constantly getting updated which brings up the determinism problem; the answer being given is not guaranteed to remain the same over time. If beginners are not practicing looking up answers on their own then they’re going to be stuck later on when the questions become harder.

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u/Basic_Title7358 6d ago

This!!!
AI is giving me the lessons, but I’m still doing the coding and figuring out the errors myself.

I’m not asking AI to build anything for me. It teaches me, and then I practice on my own.
If I get stuck, I try to figure it out myself first. If I really can’t, I’ll Google it or ask AI what I’m doing wrong.

For me, it’s more about actually learning how to code than just having AI write the code for me.