r/AskProgramming • u/Effective_Corgi_4517 • 5d ago
Revisiting programming after years, how do I make it feel the same.
Note: I am NOT complaining about AI
Something like 5 years ago or so I was deeply obsessed with programming, I used to stay up at night messing with shit I didn't understand
I genuinely spent so many hours in vs while knowing nothing beyond variables and functions
I remember once that I was following a c# tutorial on YouTube and I kept having the same error and I had no way of knowing how to fix it so I had to join the creator's discord server and spam ping him that I need help because I can't sleep without knowing what this weird error means, just for it to be a capital letter that had to be lowercase or something like that.
A while ago I got my Interest back and all the posts I could find were "AI will take our jobs" "CS students soon in McDonald's"...etc and this didn't even upset me.
What really killed my mood was the aesthetic change.
It stopped being the cool aesthetic that made me love programming where someone wakes up at 5 am and fights the computer for 30 hours because there is no other possible way to be successful for him then he chugs caffeine and stumbles on the answer
Because even when I tried to make a project I was like, well I can re-learn python...oorrrrrrn I could just ask ai
Most of the videos that I found were like "I AM TOTALLY NOT USING AI SLOP COME WATCH ME RECREATE THE HARDCORE FEELING BECAUSE I AM 100% HARDCOOL AND I WILL STRUGGLE INSTEAD OF USING AI!!"
which doesn't even feel better
The struggle was the fun but also struggling on purpose just to not take the easy route and ask AI for what you don't know is still silly
Both ways are killing the vibe and as a casual who is doing it for fun and not for the job I can't find a middleground
It feels like a rant with no actual question someone can help me with but I guess there is probably someone out there who found a way to be efficient and still have fun
3
u/ajcomeau 5d ago edited 5d ago
You can't re-create earlier feelings. You're not in that place anymore.
Decide what you love about programming and do it. Discover how it makes you feel now.
Don't worry about what A.I. is doing. All the tools are still available and you are free to use them yourself. I've found that when used right, A.I. actually does make a decent assistant. I don't have it generate code but I will consult it on specific algorithms and ask it for examples. I'll have Gemini and ChatGPT review my work as a second "set of eyes" and consider any suggestions they have. ChatGPT is able to analyze Github repositories, BTW.
2
u/Extra-Spring4580 5d ago
pick a niche domain with poor documentation and weak AI training data. Build something in that space to force the manual debugging cycle you miss without rejecting tools on principle.
1
u/djmagicio 5d ago
Grab a book or Udemy (or any other learning platform) course on some language that looks cool to you. Work through it. Then try to build something on your own with the language. Struggle. Use Google/AI to find necessary docs or to elucidate some specific thing when necessary.
My day job is software dev. We are now AI first. I get to write very little code by hand.
So in my spare time I’m slowly working through a course and writing software the “old fashioned” way. Partially because I enjoy it and partially to maintain the skill set.
1
u/geekichu 5d ago
I dont know that 'struggling on purpose' is silly. my first A.I.-driven project, I did take the code, but I did side by side file/function/block compares, and I would ask 'what, why this way, why not another way, downsides, etc'... that's a way to learn. no? 'semi-struggle'.
1
u/JacobStyle 5d ago
Do projects instead of tutorials and ignore hype videos. Use AI to help, but don't let it drive your design decisions. Getting suggestions or code snippets or rough drafts from the AI is fine, but ultimately, you choose the flow of your program, how your data are organized, and how things are presented to the user. AI is not good at those decisions, so you are not just making extra work for yourself. You will learn a lot, including how to leverage AI tools, and you will produce a higher quality product.
1
u/tangentstorm 5d ago
It sounds like you are conflating the idea of programming with just... Giving yourself a meaningful challenge. If you're happy using AI, then maybe the way to challenge yourself is to take on something much, much bigger than you're used to.
1
u/ConsciousBath5203 5d ago
What others have said, do something really big OR do something the AI is very bad at that requires skill (optimization).
1
u/Damonstrocity 2d ago
After several years of being a software dev I got sick of solving problems others had already solved 10 years ago and Googling (or now I guess asking AI) the answer.
Fell back in love with it after I started game development. Not saying game dev is the answer for you, but try a new domain you have no experience with since it will offer a whole new set of problems to solve.
Also if this isn’t for a job where you have a hard deadline, try to figure out everything yourself before looking up direct solutions. That makes it a lot more enjoyable. Obviously if there is time pressure look things up or do what’s quickest though.
1
u/Effective_Corgi_4517 2d ago
That's exactly what I used to do lol! Why else would you think I mentioned watching a YouTube c# tutorial... It was for unity!! I loved it because I thought "it's the only thing AI will never be good at" Then I started seeing tiktokers telling Claude to recreate Minecraft in 5minutes, lol.
1
u/mxldevs 5d ago
It stopped being the cool aesthetic that made me love programming where someone wakes up at 5 am and fights the computer for 30 hours because there is no other possible way to be successful for him then he chugs caffeine and stumbles on the answer
I have never enjoyed this aspect of programming and don't understand why people love pain.
1
u/Omagasohe 5d ago
Depends on your skill level honestly. I can build out most things without problems, but getting stuff to work when its more complex can be satisfying.
That being said, I use AI so Im not building out most things. But that of course adds some really shitty troubleshooting sessions when that code has some subtle hallucinations. Or when the AI is 100% sure a reddit shit post is the expert advice it needs to answe a question.
1
u/mxldevs 5d ago
I got into programming solely because I didn't want to have to spend time doing manual work, when I could just write a script to automate it.
My feeling of accomplishment doesn't come from learning how to use a bunch of languages and frameworks, just the fact that the original problem was solved.
1
u/fourthstanza 5d ago
How many layers of separation until you no longer feel accomplished, though? If your colleague solves a problem you were working on together, do you feel good? How about someone in another team on the other side of the building? Someone in another company? The problem is solved, but your degree of involvement is different.
I think the difference is that people who dislike AI feel less like they've solved a problem themselves or even with the help of a colleague; they feel more like someone else has solved the problem despite them.
1
u/mxldevs 5d ago
If your colleague solves a problem you were working on together, do you feel good?
Assuming I did something, sure. That's how most team projects work right?
How about someone in another team on the other side of the building? Someone in another company? The problem is solved, but your degree of involvement is different.
If I didn't actually work on the project myself, I didn't solve anything.
0
u/black_widow48 5d ago
Hot take: It still is the same, I just solve problems much faster since I have AI to help me instead of having to scour Stack Overflow for 4 hours to finally find an answer to my question.
I'm also not working at McDonald's, I get paid over 200k/year to do this.
In a nutshell, AI is basically a tool that minimizes the need for Google searching. Hours of Google searching can often be summed up in 30 seconds. That's all everyone is afraid of.
2
u/BurnQuest 5d ago
To be precise nobody is really afraid of that, but of turning their job codebase into a lights-off software factory operated by 1/3rd the people
2
u/framauro13 5d ago
I had a conversation with a coworker recently about this. His point was, "I actually like this because now engineers can focus on architecture and design and we don't have to worry about the time sink of coding".
To which my response was, "Do you think our company needs 300 architects?"
It is a disruptive technology and as someone who works for a company owned by private equity, I'd be lying if I'd say I wasn't nervous. I've done this for 20 years and it is a little insane the amount the job and the way I work has changed in just one year. I think I'm fine for now, but this is a rapidly evolving technology. Who knows where we'll be in 1 year, let alone 5.
8
u/max123246 5d ago
Tune out social media programmer videos. Instead watch Programming conference talks. They're far more inspiring and useful. Here's one on history: https://youtu.be/hpj6r6CjJf8?is=YnW67XluXKQ02-Mj
Your issue is that AI right now gets tons of views. You gotta dig a little deeper. There's still enthusiastic people who program, most of them don't make YouTube videos though. But you'll find them at conferences, in discord servers, etc.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2b0df3jKKiRFEuVNk76ufXagOgEJ9sBZ&si=15tZHd-J5q-A5vB-
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KWB-gDVuy_I
Also code more than you watch videos about programming. So much of it is noise.