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Are you doomed learning coding in the AI era?

Daniel Possible Kwabi on February 06, 2026

I pity all those learning to code post chatgpt "They'll never know the feeling of finally solving a problem after going at it for 24 hours." I he...
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Ned C

the framing shift is important here. learning to code with AI isnt cheating, its just a different skill. you still need to understand what the code does, you still need to debug it when it breaks, and you still need to know enough to tell the AI when its wrong.

if anything AI raised the bar for what counts as useful knowledge. memorizing syntax is less valuable now but understanding architecture, tradeoffs, and debugging is more valuable than ever. the people who treat AI as a replacement for learning will plateau fast. the ones who use it as a learning accelerator will go further than any of us did.

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Daniel Possible Kwabi

I get you, I really do but people do use it to "cheat" and end up not learning anything

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Ned C

fair point. the distinction i'd draw is between using AI as a shortcut to skip understanding vs using it as a tool to accelerate learning. someone who copies AI output without reading it isn't learning, but someone who uses it to explore patterns, then modifies and tests the code, is learning faster than reading docs alone. the tool isn't the problem, the intent is.

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Fit Happens ML

To be honest I think that PM skills are now more important than coding skills.

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Daniel Possible Kwabi

You are on to something surely

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Julien Avezou

On the contrary, this is a golden era to start coding. But avoid too many shortcuts, its important to keeping learning software fundamentals. System design and theory are increasingly important in the age of AI. And so is product mindset an design, with the ability to shape products through fast iterations.

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Herrmer

I'd probably have this stance too

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Daniel Possible Kwabi

I agree. The key is doing it right

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Christiaan Myburgh

It truly is a weird time to be a dev.

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Daniel Possible Kwabi

A very weird time to be a dev. The future is sooo uncertain

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Shitij Bhatnagar

Doomed? Far from it, we shall ride the AI wave together if we adapt rightly and use AI as the multiplier/time saver tool for us.

And I agree on the dopamine hit :-)

Thanks for writing.

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Daniel Possible Kwabi

yeah, I think objectlively it speeds up learning. And thanks for engaging.

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Shitij Bhatnagar

Thanks for your note and a few related discussions are on at these links, in case interested:

dev.to/shitij_bhatnagar_b6d1be72/d...

dev.to/the_nortern_dev/the-junior-...