Like many (or not), I started programming with books (procedural PHP 5.4/5.6, I’m 36).
I chose the web over low-level stuff: a gentler learning curve and faster feedback.
OOP was a real wall at first:
understanding classes, methods, OOP logic
wrapping my head around design patterns (creational, structural, behavioral)
and everything else…
Not easy back then.
My first real job? Refactoring a high-traffic e-commerce site from PHP 5.6 to PHP 7.0.1, MVC… without a framework. Rebuilding everything from scratch.
That’s where I truly understood object logic, patterns, and the architecture of clean code.
Then came Magento 1.x - a level up.
Framework, JS libraries, Varien logic… and plenty of “dirty code” that somehow worked. Thanks to the hours I’d invested before, I managed and even learned to enjoy using Zend Framework.
Next came the DevOps layer: Docker, Traefik, CI/CD.
Evenings spent building, breaking, reconfiguring, rebuilding… PHP/Redis/Varnish/MySQL/Nginx, Traefik… until the logic really clicked.
In 2017 → Magento 2.
UI Components XML, KnockoutJS, almost non-existent docs… I often felt behind. But with persistence, I ended up taming the beast.
Today, with 12+ years in the web world, I notice:
Many junior (or career-switching) devs call themselves “full-stack” or “experts”… but lack solid OOP/algorithm foundations and lean on layer upon layer of abstraction (pop quiz: what’s the point of a static class?)
With AI generating code instantly, the risk is huge: we stop trying to understand.
So here’s my question:
Is it still worth investing in learning a language or a framework?
Or is AI about to redefine how we learn to code?
Personally, I don’t have the time or energy to learn a new language from scratch like before.
And on the JS side, it’s chaos - a new framework every day lol, it’s unmanageable.
How about you — do you ask yourself the same question? How do you see your future as a dev with AI?
Top comments (0)