I'm losing hope and I feel like a failure. How do I find help without relying on AI?
Posted by Garuzo-MSR@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 17 comments
I'm losing hope and I feel like a failure. How do I find help without relying on AI?
Hello everyone, sorry for this rant in broken English, but I need help.
I'm currently stuck at the Weather App of The Odin Project and I genuinely feel terrible. For every single project I made I had to rely on the VS copilot... I understand the concepts, I can read the code without any issue, but when it comes to actually making the project? I stare at the screen, on the stack overflow homepage and I genuinely do not know what to do.
I understand that I should write pseudocode to make my life easier, but when I try to write it I get anxious on every single little detail I know I have to consider, and also when I ask the copilot for hints, or step by step guides, I still struggle.
When the AI helps me with the code, everything makes sense. it's completely understandable, but every time I think to myself "how could I ever come up with this by myself? it wasn't explained in the lesson".
So most of my projects (for the JavaScript section at least) are heavily influenced by AI.
Then I look at the posts here and I feel ashamed, like I wasted my time on nothing, and I feel like a failure. People say that you need to use documentation, to Google stuff, to use stack overflow... but genuinely, how? how can I use stack overflow from nothing? what do I ask? "please tell me how to make the weather app"? obviously not, but then genuinely, what? also, there are just so many projects, how much time am I supposed to invest in every single one of them? weeks?months?
I know that it's hard, I know that it's a struggle, that I need to persevere yadda yadda... but I don't understand HOW I need to persevere, what questions I should ask, how I should ask them...
it's a terrible feeling, thinking that everything I've made, that all the time I invested, was for nothing. I am genuinely losing hope, it feels like I'm making a stupid choice to learn programming at 26 years old, especially considering the job market in Italy (where I live), and the fact that AI can make code way better than mine in seconds. I want to work as soon as possible, I could go to university, but I'm 26 ffs I can't waste another 3-4 years.
Jeez this post is a mess, it started with asking a question on how to ask questions instead of relying on AI and it spiraled into questioning life choices lol.
Can you please, please offer me some guidance? Have you ever felt like me? Am I doomed (not sarcastic, genuinely asking)?
I really want to work in frontend, I believe that my experience with art and design would help me in this effort and differentiate me from other candidates, but I feel like it's too late to get a degree and also without it I can't go anywhere.
Please help me. Please.
disposepriority@reddit
I'm not reading all that, just turn off AI while you're studying lmao
Garuzo-MSR@reddit (OP)
Mistake on my part, to expect empathy on reddit
Humble_Warthog9711@reddit
Do you think your position deserves empathy though
Do you know how many people here complain they can't code without AI? Imagine you're experienced and you see hundreds of people complain they can't do the thing yet without cheating that you didn't hear after year practicing
You aren't being denied a fundamental right by being forced to struggle to learn.
acuddlywookie@reddit
Hey! I’m also doing the Odin Project and I’m a little further along than you. If you need help with projects, join the discord and ask in there rather than relying on AI.
As other have mentioned, AI can be a really use tool in the workplace, but you’re not there. Your goal doing TOP isn’t productivity, it’s learning.
If I remember correctly there are some instructions on how to use third party APIs in the previous couple of lessons and some guides on how to use asynchronous functions. Go back, study those and get those down in isolation, then come back to the weather project
shrodikan@reddit
"I'm losing hope and I feel like a failure." OP this is what you need to work on. I have a suspicion that shame-cycles and feelings of failure are thematic for you. Seek therapy for this and everything you do will be clearer.
On AI and programming-there is no morality here. Do what makes you productive. Using AI is how programming is done professionally now-you just can't keep up without it. The entire third world can describe what they want badly, hit "yes", test and repeat. Do you believe that the MBAs give a single fuck about all these nerds pearl-clutching and gatekeeping about "real programmers" or do they care about productivity?
Jumpy_Fact_1502@reddit
Dev like legos. Which block do you have. Write code using all you know into something functional if you don't know enough use error messages to help you. Then think what could be. Nice add on. Look up that feature only. Add it now make a new project with that feature and continue for each feature you learn do more mini projects that call ok some of the previous features you've learned to reinforce it
hyper4saken@reddit
You’re not alone in feeling like you’re too late to learn. Everyone has been there—staring at a blank screen, not knowing what to do next.
Be patient—learning takes time
Just keep going step by step. You’ll improve more than you think.
If you are too much dependent on copilot turn it off or if you want to build for better muscle memory use text editor like sublime text
cerebralriot@reddit
Programming is getting to the point where AI use is expected and you as a programmer is expected to architect and manage it. If you’re hired to build a house, you hire and direct contractors, the person who hired you now doesn’t expect you to build it all yourself.
Especially in an industry where outcomes and results are paramount to how you got to them. You still need to be able to evaluate these contractors tho, the outcome is dependent on your judgement.
CAPTAIN-GOD_USOPP@reddit
You should spend more time thinking rather than just writing(copy pasting) code, Try writing everything in plain English on a notepad or notebook first, then google or use AI to figure out the "how to" parts, slowly you will build a pattern to do critical thinking
emt139@reddit
I think you need to change your mindset from “completing the weather app” to “learning to code”. At the moment, you should stop with the project if you’re doing it in such a way that you don’t even understand what you should be asking out of stack overflow of documentation.
Then your focus’s should be pseudo code, not edge cases, not syntax.
Once you have the code, implement it, test it step by step, then when you get stuck then debug by yourself using documentation. Remember, you’re looking to solve small steps not to find whole solutions for the whole weather app.
EdwardElric69@reddit
Ive heard of the Odin project but dont know the specifics.
What type of app is it? Is it a web app? Do you know what framework/language youre using?
Typically you start by planning out the app, where people will use it, web or device, then plan out the features, what entities you need based on the features, what is your UI going to look like, what services are you going to use? where is the data coming from?
you do all this before writing code. Its like building a house, you follow a blueprint /plans. You dont start but chucking a pile of blocks into a field.
Also your point on being too old for a degree is bullshit. Im graduating from a 4 year degree this semester at 32.
lurgi@reddit
You know what you need to do, right? You need to write the code yourself. It doesn't matter if you understand the code after it's been written - you are doing the equivalent of having someone else write the code for you and explain it to you and now you are wondering why you can't write the code yourself.
Go back to some earlier, easier projects and do them yourself. It's okay to look stuff up (we do that all the time), but don't look up solutions. Look up individual steps. Don't know how to write a function? Look it up. Don't remember how to center something? Look it up. Don't remember how to start the thing in the first place? Look up the very first example, copy it out, and then build on that.
Garuzo-MSR@reddit (OP)
I understand that my question is hard to answer, but It's easy to tell people what they should be doing... without the HOW, it doesn't help. I already know what the right way is, I don't know how to approach it
chocolate_asshole@reddit
honestly copilot dependency is super normal right now, i’m 30 and still googling “how do i do X in js” every day, degree or not they all google and struggle for months, esp with how bad jobs are now
Garuzo-MSR@reddit (OP)
I don't know... I'm probably just scared and this anxiety will wear off over time, but I'm genuinely struggling. It's a relief that I at least understand the code, but when it comes to writing it by myself it's genuinely a struggle
azian0713@reddit
Honestly, it doesn’t sound like you’re struggling enough and instead, giving up and using AI almost immediately.
What do you Google to read documentation? It really depends on where you are in your journey. For your weather app, do you have an idea of what you need to initialize? What your first few lines should do? What you need before anything else? If not, you don’t understand the project/assignment well enough and it’s not a coding issue. It’s a project management problem solving issue.
Let’s say you do know where to start but aren’t sure how to do something. Are you able to break down your problem into the smallest parts and describe what makes sense and what doesn’t? Have you spent time reading and implementing different suggested solutions? Have you tried reading repos starting with the read me’s?
TLDR: you’re giving up too fast which is hampering your problem solving and project management skills. Coding is the easy part. Figuring out how to implement code to solve a problem is what’s hard and that’s what you’re missing.
jjopm@reddit
AI good, not AI bad