Take everything with a gain of salt I'm a student leaning how to program
When I was 5 years old, I was learning how to ride a bike. A shiny day, the wind rustling through the leaves. My small body had to manage balance, the feel of the handlebars, and my father's encouraging cheers from the sidewalk. I turned my head to smile and bam - faceplant.
Now imagine if I had started on a motorcycle instead.
Dead before turning 6, I guess.
Why mention this? Because this analogy perfectly captures the relationship between learning to code and jumping straight to using Large Language Models (LLMs).
Just as we respect the natural progression from bicycles to motorcycles, I should approach coding with the same reverence for the learning process.
A child masters balance and basic controls on a bicycle before graduating to the power and complexity of a motorcycle. Similarly, I as a Developer, need to understand programming fundamentals before effectively harnessing LLMs.
When I, without fundamental skills, rely entirely on LLMs to generate code I don't understand, I've essentially placed my self in the shoes of a child riding motorcycles—unaware of the dangers and unprepared for the consequences when things go wrong.
The stakes have never been higher. Code is increasingly controlling critical systems in our world. Understanding what happens under the hood isn't just academic—it's essential for building safe, reliable software that won't endanger lives when it inevitably encounters edge cases and unexpected scenarios.
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