Is this a bad practice?

Posted by DefoNotBurner-z@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 11 comments

(Not vibe coding)

Basically, whenever I want to make something, I give AI a list of features and what the script will do, etc and have it generate a plan for me, like:

Day 1 = do X,Y,Z

Day 2 = do A,B,C

and so on.

Then I ask for instructions for each day.

The only thing I don’t have it do is actually code for me.

So essentially, I’m using AI as a teacher and a tutorial for whatever I’m building.

Is this bad practice?

Am I hindering my learning by doing this?

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Digital-Chupacabra@reddit

Programming is about solving problems, not typing.

The only thing I don’t have it do is actually code for me.

So are you programming?

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Taiqi_@reddit

I'm not going to jump to "bad practice!" as others have, because I think, depending on the person or how you're doing it, it could be useful.

What I will tell you to do is ask yourself:

Do I understand why the assistant gave me the instructions they gave me?
Can I explain the process I was given to someone else in my own words? Can I further elaborate on the reasoning for each step or what each step adds to the goal?
Am I able to replicate the assistant's thinking in similar scenarios?
Try testing yourself. Slightly change the goal of a project/projects you've had help with from AI and try to do it again, this time without help. In other words, can I ride without the training wheels?
Can I identify when the instruction given by the assistant isn't quite what I want?
Whether it is how you explained it, the complexity of the task, or mistakes on the AI's part, sometimes the route the AI suggests may not be the one you actually want to follow. When you can catch those moments, and where in your process you do, shows how much you are understanding what is being given to you.
Did I do additional research?
When AI gives us foreign concepts, we need to look them up and not just accept them wholesale. A good example I had today: I made the mistake of using "this" in a function, and the AI suggested I change the function to a class declaration. Rather than simply following the AI's prompt, I looked into the reason for the suggestion and found the mistake in my thinking. During this deep dive, I found that a class isn't what I wanted, rather, I was trying to get the functionality of closures - something I didn't fully understand before, and still don't, but now that I understand what they are, I can challenge myself going forward towards using them correctly.

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speedyrev@reddit

Plan and design yourself. Ask AI for improvements. Then code yourself. AI comes in handy for some refactoring.

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BNfreelance@reddit

If you have no real direction, then yeah it can help steer you.

But ideally you’d be writing your own objectives and briefs, so that you’re designing the product yourself - your understanding develops way faster than letting the AI do it for you

Following AI-direction is very similar to when we used to follow verbatim instructions from text books, it’s just evolved a bit. But you only truly master something when you stop following someone else’s script and write your own

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chaotic_thought@reddit

So what happens when you need more time for X,Y,Z (i.e. you need more than one day?) And then what do you do when X,Y,Z are all done on Day 1 and you have nothing to do? Do you twiddle your thumbs or browse twitter or something until Day 2 rolls around?

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Fast-Boysenberry-286@reddit

When I teach my students computer science, I rather have my students use AI with comments on every line describing what it does than have them use AI to get the algorithms and data structures. When I worked for a software company there is no way I release updates with codes I don't know what each line does.

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434f4445@reddit

Yes, you’re missing the whole part of conceptualizing the project for yourself, you’re using AI in lieu of your brain. This will stunt your development as a software engineer/developer. A big portion of what a software engineer does is conceptualizes the project, and breaks it down into actionable chunks. Yes this might be easier, but ultimately this hurts your critical thinking skills.

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bridge_thrower@reddit

let me give you a piece of advice.

there will be two sets of answers you're going to receive. One set you will like, the other, not so much. Are either going to be a surprise to you? You know the answer to this based on what you're trying to build and what you're trying to do. If your goal is learning, why are you skipping so much of the learning? If your goal is to get something that works then do what you want, there's no police here

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QVRedit@reddit

Maybe try to design stuff yourself - then use the AI to check and criticise your design - that way you are using it as a learning tool..

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MeLittleThing@reddit

Yes it's a bad practice. You're missing the conception/engineering part, which is one of the funniest when developping

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aqua_regis@reddit

Even though AI doesn't give you the actual code, it still does the design, planning, and thinking for you, which is even more important than the actual programming. You are depriving yourself of the most important part of programming.

Code is only the end result and the easiest part of programming.

You're outsourcing the really important, and difficult parts of programming.

So, yes, it is detrimental to your learning.

You could just as well watch tutorials that pre-chew everything for you and won't learn just as little as you do with your approach.

You are just as much in tutorial hell as someone who actually uses tutorial - no difference.

Learning programming is learning to do your own projects, to develop your own solutions, not to get everything fed to you.