I glanced at my browser tabs this morning. Twenty tabs open. Every single one was either Claude or Gemini.
Then I remembered what my tabs used to look like just four years ago: Stack Overflow threads, MDN docs, blog posts, GitHub issues. The traditional developer toolkit.
The shift happened so gradually that I almost missed how fundamental it is.
The Old Way
Remember the workflow? You'd hit a problem, craft the perfect search query, wade through Stack Overflow answers from 2014, cross-reference three different blog posts, and eventually piece together a solution. Then you'd keep those tabs open for days because you might need them again.
Documentation was your bible. You'd spend hours reading API docs, trying to understand the examples, mentally mapping them to your specific use case.
The New Way
Now? I open a chat. I describe what I'm building. The conversation unfolds like pair programming with someone who's read every piece of documentation and every Stack Overflow thread ever written.
- Need to understand a complex API? Ask questions back and forth until it clicks
- Stuck on an architectural decision? Brainstorm trade-offs in real-time
- Can't remember that regex pattern? Get it explained and customized for your exact case
It's not just faster. It's fundamentally different.
Example: Last week I needed to implement rate limiting for my MCP server. Old way: I'd search "rate limiting node.js", read 5 articles, piece together a solution, test it, debug it. New way: I described my use case to Claude, we discussed trade-offs (token bucket vs sliding window), it generated an implementation with my specific edge cases handled, I reviewed and shipped.
Same outcome. Completely different process. The knowledge transfer happened through conversation, not documentation.
What We're Not Talking About
The development community is still processing this shift, and honestly, I'm not sure we're having the right conversations:
We talk about productivity gains. Sure, I ship faster. But that's not the interesting part.
We don't talk enough about how it's changing how we learn. I'm not memorizing syntax anymore. I'm learning concepts and patterns while the AI handles the implementation details. Is this better? Worse? Just different?
We're not discussing the dependency. My entire workflow now assumes I have access to these tools. What happens when I don't? Am I losing skills or just offloading the memorization to focus on higher-level thinking?
We're glossing over what we lost. Those 47 Stack Overflow tabs weren't just research - they connected you to the collective knowledge of thousands of developers who struggled with the same problem. Now my tabs are conversations with AI. I'm more productive, but I'm also more isolated. There's something philosophical there we haven't unpacked.
The Uncomfortable Questions
I love these tools. FPL Hub, the RAG systems I've built, my MCP servers - they've all been developed with AI assistance. I'm more productive than ever.
But sometimes I wonder:
- Am I becoming a better developer or just a better prompt engineer?
- When the AI explains something, am I really understanding it or just trusting it?
- What happens to the next generation of developers who never learn to read documentation the hard way?
Maybe It's Just Evolution
Every generation of developers faces this. Assembly programmers thought high-level languages would ruin programming. Java devs scoffed at frameworks that "did too much magic." Seniors today still debate whether junior devs should learn algorithms before frameworks.
Maybe AI assistance is just the next abstraction layer. Maybe fighting it is like insisting we should all write malloc() from scratch to "really understand memory management."
Or maybe it's different this time.
The Skills That Matter Now
Here's what I've noticed: the skills that matter are changing.
Less important:
- Memorizing syntax
- Knowing every edge case of a library
- Perfect recall of API methods
More important:
- Asking the right questions
- Evaluating if an AI-generated solution is actually good
- Understanding trade-offs and system design
- Knowing when to trust the AI and when to dig deeper
I can't tell if this is a net positive yet. But I know it's real.
What I Know For Sure
Looking at those tabs - all AI chats, zero traditional docs - I know one thing: the way we work has completely changed, and we're still figuring out what that means.
We're the first generation of developers living through this transition. We're writing the playbook in real-time. Some of us are thriving, some are skeptical, most of us are somewhere in between.
The tabs don't lie though. The shift is real. Whether we've fully processed it or not.
What's in your tabs right now? Still documentation? Or has the shift happened for you too?
Top comments (10)
Still using documention and tutorials myself. Starting out, I do believe fundamentals remain important for a firm foundation that can be built on.
100%. fundamentals are even more important now imo. you need to know what good code looks like to catch when AI generates garbage.
what are you learning rn?
Currently working through the Responsive Web Design certification at freeCodeCamp but my first love is Python!
python gang 💪
fcc's structure is really good for building muscle memory. you thinking fullstack eventually or backend focused?
I aim to complete the freeCodeCamp Full Stack curriculum, though I’m more backend-leaning. Python's my favourite, so I'll focus there while still keeping up with the frontend basics.
makes sense. knowing enough frontend to not be completely lost is clutch even as a backend dev
fastapi is fire if you haven't checked it out yet
No, I haven't as of yet. Appreciate the heads-up though!
for sure! you'll prob run into it eventually, it's everywhere now
good luck with fcc 💪
Fantastic article ...
Now, this just made me wonder: could AI write this ... ? I think the answer is an unqualified "NO", and that clearly shows where humans still have the edge, and will keep that edge for the foreseeable future ...
appreciate that 🙏
ai loves giving solutions. this is more just... processing out loud and not knowing the answers yet
glad it landed