7 ms·

Not just that. As a 31 year old developer even I feel like acquiring new skills is now harder than ever. Having Claude come up with good solutions to problems f

Not just that. As a 31 year old developer even I feel like acquiring new skills is now harder than ever. Having Claude come up with good solutions to problems feels fast, but I don't learn anything by doing so. Like it took me weeks to understand what good and what bad CMake code looks like. This made me the Cmake guy at work. The learning curve delayed the port from qmake to CMake quite a bit, but I learned a new skill.

thin_carapace 6mo ago
what i find interesting about your perspective is your subjective perception of difficulty. nobody short of a savant is going to pick up a new language instantly. weeks (if not months) to learn a language is completely normal outside of this hyper exaggerated atmosphere we find ourselves in. that being said, language models do atrophy the brain when used in excess, and they do encourage surface level understanding, so i agree wholeheartedly with the idea of not learning anything at all by using them.
tclancy 6mo ago
I have a block of code I will put in the CLAUDE.md file of any project where I want to get a better understanding of the tech in use where I ask for verbose explanations, forcing me to write some of the code, etc. Mixed results so far but I think it will get there. The one thing that I have decided: only one new thing per project!
heraldgeezer 6mo ago
You are on the internet. You can download every book or tutorial ever made in our history. We have access to vast knowledge.
jdefr89 6mo ago
I’m 37 and have coded my entire life. I even got to pull the drop out of college and do star up and make money type thing before I took my current position.. I have to say AI has sucked the heart and soul out of coding.. Like it’s the most boring thing having to sit and prompt… Not to mention the slop, nonsense hype etc.. Never attach your identity to your job or a skill. Many of us do that just to be humbled when a new advancement occurs… I know I see programming and looking at Open Source code to contribute and all of it…. Is just lifeless. Literally and figuratively. Sorry for long rant I needed to vent.
- the_biot 6mo ago
  You and me both :-( I see open source projects entirely run by clueless LLM-using idiots, and existing projects overrun by them, and there is none of the quality or passion you would normally see. Even if I were to apply my skill/energy to a project of my own, my code would just get stolen by these LLM companies to train their models, and regurgitated with my license removed. What's the point?
winwang 6mo ago
Interesting. I've felt like it's never been easier to learn things, but I suppose that's not quite the same as "acquiring new skills". I don't know if it applies, but it's always been easy to take the easy way out? I feel like AI has made it a bit easier to do harder things too.
rachel-ftw 6mo ago
Claude has a teacher mode where it will ask you questions. I’m picking up game dev in my spare time. I’m not letting Claude write any of the code. We talk through the next task, I take a run at it, then when I’m stuck I got back and talk through where the problems are. It’s slower than just letting Claude do it, obviously. Plus you do need to be a bit disciplined - Claude will gladly do it for you when you start getting tired. I am picking it up through, and not getting bogged down in the beginner ‘impossible feeling bugs you can’t figure out bc you’re learning and don’t fully understand everything yet’ stage.
- boogieknite 6mo ago
  thanks for the heads up. wasnt aware of teacher mode but always phrase prompts to "teach me" as a shortcut to get claude to explain everything its offering and prevent from just implementing code
- giardini 6mo ago
  Are you speaking of Claude's "learning mode" which switches it to a Socratic dialogue mode? https://www.tomsguide.com/ai/claudes-new-learning-modes-take-on-chatgpts-study-mode-heres-what-they-do https://www.tomsguide.com/ai/claudes-new-learning-modes-take...
  - Computer0 6mo ago
    I had assumed they were referencing the "Learning Output Style" https://code.claude.com/docs/en/output-styles https://code.claude.com/docs/en/output-styles
- arvid-lind 6mo ago
  I've been using Claude Code since last summer and had no idea about the learning mode. Between the old features i've missed and all the new features to learn weekly, if not daily, I'm starting to accept I'll never catch up.
  - Bombthecat 6mo ago
ghthor 6mo ago
How are you not learning from reading all the code produced by Claude? Is auditing a new codebase or onboarding to a new project any different from creating a new codebase w/ Claude? Reading code and understanding it is a very important skill and now might be the most important skill.
- maniacwhat 6mo ago
  Imo reading code is very different to writing it. It's analogous to reading a textbook and skipping the exercises. The exercises make you think and realize the gaps in your knowledge that you did "read" at the time but didn't fully appreciate.
  - rationalist 6mo ago
    > reading code is very different to writing it As I was reading this exchange, I was wondering the same thing, why isn't a person learning the code from reading the code that was produced. I guess people learn differently when it comes to code.
seanmcdirmid 6mo ago
I can't imagine that you aren't learning a lot in just getting the AI to do what you need it to do. I haven't learned as much as I have in the last 6 months in a long time, including grounding theory and new kinds of testing. I feel like a PhD student again.

thin_carapace 6mo ago

what i find interesting about your perspective is your subjective perception of difficulty. nobody short of a savant is going to pick up a new language instantly. weeks (if not months) to learn a language is completely normal outside of this hyper exaggerated atmosphere we find ourselves in. that being said, language models do atrophy the brain when used in excess, and they do encourage surface level understanding, so i agree wholeheartedly with the idea of not learning anything at all by using them.

tclancy 6mo ago

I have a block of code I will put in the CLAUDE.md file of any project where I want to get a better understanding of the tech in use where I ask for verbose explanations, forcing me to write some of the code, etc. Mixed results so far but I think it will get there. The one thing that I have decided: only one new thing per project!

heraldgeezer 6mo ago

You are on the internet. You can download every book or tutorial ever made in our history. We have access to vast knowledge.

jdefr89 6mo ago

I’m 37 and have coded my entire life. I even got to pull the drop out of college and do star up and make money type thing before I took my current position.. I have to say AI has sucked the heart and soul out of coding.. Like it’s the most boring thing having to sit and prompt… Not to mention the slop, nonsense hype etc.. Never attach your identity to your job or a skill. Many of us do that just to be humbled when a new advancement occurs… I know I see programming and looking at Open Source code to contribute and all of it…. Is just lifeless. Literally and figuratively. Sorry for long rant I needed to vent.

the_biot 6mo ago
You and me both :-( I see open source projects entirely run by clueless LLM-using idiots, and existing projects overrun by them, and there is none of the quality or passion you would normally see. Even if I were to apply my skill/energy to a project of my own, my code would just get stolen by these LLM companies to train their models, and regurgitated with my license removed. What's the point?

winwang 6mo ago

Interesting. I've felt like it's never been easier to learn things, but I suppose that's not quite the same as "acquiring new skills". I don't know if it applies, but it's always been easy to take the easy way out? I feel like AI has made it a bit easier to do harder things too.

rachel-ftw 6mo ago

Claude has a teacher mode where it will ask you questions. I’m picking up game dev in my spare time. I’m not letting Claude write any of the code. We talk through the next task, I take a run at it, then when I’m stuck I got back and talk through where the problems are. It’s slower than just letting Claude do it, obviously. Plus you do need to be a bit disciplined - Claude will gladly do it for you when you start getting tired. I am picking it up through, and not getting bogged down in the beginner ‘impossible feeling bugs you can’t figure out bc you’re learning and don’t fully understand everything yet’ stage.

boogieknite 6mo ago
thanks for the heads up. wasnt aware of teacher mode but always phrase prompts to "teach me" as a shortcut to get claude to explain everything its offering and prevent from just implementing code
giardini 6mo ago
Are you speaking of Claude's "learning mode" which switches it to a Socratic dialogue mode? https://www.tomsguide.com/ai/claudes-new-learning-modes-take-on-chatgpts-study-mode-heres-what-they-do https://www.tomsguide.com/ai/claudes-new-learning-modes-take...
- Computer0 6mo ago
  I had assumed they were referencing the "Learning Output Style" https://code.claude.com/docs/en/output-styles https://code.claude.com/docs/en/output-styles
arvid-lind 6mo ago
I've been using Claude Code since last summer and had no idea about the learning mode. Between the old features i've missed and all the new features to learn weekly, if not daily, I'm starting to accept I'll never catch up.
- Bombthecat 6mo ago

ghthor 6mo ago

How are you not learning from reading all the code produced by Claude? Is auditing a new codebase or onboarding to a new project any different from creating a new codebase w/ Claude? Reading code and understanding it is a very important skill and now might be the most important skill.

maniacwhat 6mo ago
Imo reading code is very different to writing it. It's analogous to reading a textbook and skipping the exercises. The exercises make you think and realize the gaps in your knowledge that you did "read" at the time but didn't fully appreciate.
- rationalist 6mo ago
  > reading code is very different to writing it As I was reading this exchange, I was wondering the same thing, why isn't a person learning the code from reading the code that was produced. I guess people learn differently when it comes to code.

seanmcdirmid 6mo ago

I can't imagine that you aren't learning a lot in just getting the AI to do what you need it to do. I haven't learned as much as I have in the last 6 months in a long time, including grounding theory and new kinds of testing. I feel like a PhD student again.