r/learnprogramming • u/Ifrit_Jambe • 19h ago

Python or Web dev?

So yesterday, i told a friend of mine that i was learning web dev stuff from TOP (the odin project), and well, he was just clowning on me about how i am wasting my time on learning it when AI can do all the work related to it anyway, tho i doubt it can do everything rn, it might just be capable enough in the future and he also suggested me to learn python.

Even though i have no qualms about leaving the web dev stuff, TOP is just too beginner friendly i suppose, they had me install a VM to run linux and code on it, so yeah. Just looking for answers and advice and maybe some free sources to learn python from.

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6

u/_Atomfinger_ 19h ago

Would it help to know that you can use Python in web dev? So TOP and web dev aren't mutually exclusive.

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u/Ifrit_Jambe 19h ago

yeah i know that, but should i be learning html and css though, i feel as if they're pretty cool, but i'd rather not waste my time?

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u/_Atomfinger_ 19h ago

HTML and CSS are not that difficult to get a grasp on, so I wouldn't worry too much about those. You can pick those up when the time comes.

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u/monster2018 18h ago

Idk man. Yes HTML is absurdly simple, like anyone should be able to learn it in like ~5-15 minutes or so. Like <openingtag>text</closingtag>, attributes or whatever they’re called (class, id, href, etc), and you’ve pretty much learned HTML. But CSS? That is nowhere comparable to HTML in my opinion. Frankly I think CSS is harder to learn than programming is.

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u/_Atomfinger_ 18h ago

Frankly I think CSS is harder to learn than programming is.

Really? CSS is harder to learn than programming? That doesn't really track for me.

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u/monster2018 18h ago

I’m probably biased because I have been programming for 15+ years, and have only very sparingly used CSS, including a few days ago. So to some degree I’m probably suffering from recency bias. But I mean… yes. Maybe not in general, but for me CSS is absurdly difficult. Even just doing something simple like… so like I wanted to have a grid of cards where the cards maintain even horizontal spacing and have fixed vertical spacing, where the horizontal spacing and number of cards per row adjusts with the window size. It took me like 2-3 hours just to figure that out.

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u/_Atomfinger_ 18h ago

Well, I, too, have about 15 YoE, and I wouldn't say CSS is particularly difficult.

It can basically be treated as a pretty big API, so it is more a lookup problem to find which attributes the thing you want has vs actual complexity.

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u/Unusual_Comment_3526 19h ago

web dev is a way bigger field than people think, and AI ain't replacing the need to understand how things actually fit together anytime soon

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u/Wingedchestnut 19h ago edited 19h ago

Some python backend are popular like FastAPI depending on the use case, they're not exclusive and I would just continue with TOP and webdev, python can always be learned quickly if you need it.

Webdev/fullstack development will always be needed if you want fundamental understanding of development. Python is mainly strong for data roles which is pretty much a different field.

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u/Dismal-Citron-7236 18h ago

he was just clowning on me about how i am wasting my time on learning it when AI can do all the work related to it anyway

Well, your friend'd be wrong. AI can do most entry-level coding for sure, but there's no guarantee it'll be correct. In fact, it turns out as the task gets more complicated, the error rate grows significantly.

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u/Feeling_Photograph_5 18h ago

Stick to your curriculum. Ignore your friend. And the next person who tells you you're doing the wrong thing. Just keep making progress. 

You'll eventually learn to use AI tools but for now keep coding by hand. 

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u/peterlinddk 17h ago

If what you are doing is something that results in a digital product that solves a problem that someone else has solved in some variation before you, then AI can do all the work.

But so can other people - you are not unique or special in that you are learning some programming language or framework, thousands if not millions have done that before you, the same exact technologies, the same exact exercises, often even the same exact solutions.

So, if you want to be unique and totally different from AI, you should get away from doing anything digital at all!

Or you could just ignore it, and learn what you like to learn, do what you like to do. No one knows what the immediate future will bring, but learning stuff and becoming good at it has always been worth doing, no matter how niche or how replaceable that stuff might be!

Python is very much used in web backend, but it truly helps to understand the front end as well.