AI killing our desire to learn

I’ve written about my experience with generative AI tools. If used correctly, they can really speed up development.

But just like having a calculator always on hand has made us lazy to do math in our heads, having access to an AI coding assistant makes us lazy to learn new languages.

I’ve noticed that I generate plenty of Go code, which is easy to grok (dad joke alert), but I never bothered to dive deep and learn idiomatic Go. I learned by watching the AI do its thing.

But AI is often stupid and overcomplicates elementary things. If you can’t verify that whatever it’s written is bullshit, you are in trouble.

While it’s possible to be productive by feeling rather than knowing, having a deeper understanding of the code that’s being generated is crucial for upgrading from throwaway prototypes to production-grade code.

I just ordered Jon Bodner’s Learning Go Second Edition to dive deeper into the language for 2025.

It’s time to apply some old-school learning.

Yours,

Taj