Personally, I think learning specific implementation of algorithms probably should take less of a priority compared to fundamental architectural understanding why these things are done in the first place: data structure, automata theory, interpreter/compiler methodologies, etc. You still have to learn how to code, even if you won't be doing a lot of coding directly yourself, because the fastest way to learn how to evaluate code is by writing code yourself.
Ask HN: How much coding should beginners learn in the AI era?
31–40 of 73 posts
Re: Ask HN: How much coding should beginners learn in the AI era?
#32for ai research, safety, aerospace, military, trading, gamedev .. those will probably still need coding for a bit longer.
Re: Ask HN: How much coding should beginners learn in the AI era?
#33Re: Ask HN: How much coding should beginners learn in the AI era?
#34On effective engineering teams, there's always at least one person who is fluent one layer below where the rest of the team operates. That person tends to be extraordinarily useful in tricky situations. Examples: someone who can read assembly on a team writing C; someone who spends a lot of time in the browser debugger on a frontend team; or someone who is comfortable stepping deep into third-party library code with…
Re: Ask HN: How much coding should beginners learn in the AI era?
#35Re: Ask HN: How much coding should beginners learn in the AI era?
#36Re: Ask HN: How much coding should beginners learn in the AI era?
#37All of it. AI is magnificent in hands of a skilled coder. And absolutely crap in hands of someone who has no clue how computers work.
Re: Ask HN: How much coding should beginners learn in the AI era?
#38None. My company is hiring anyone who can use a computer and having them produce code via AI then review via AI and that is that. I was told to stop writing any code 6 months ago and haven't written a single line since. Not sure learning anything is worth it anymore, I'm shown every day at my company how they are replacing me directly and no longer have "devs" or "IT". They now call "IT", Digital Services and it can…
Re: Ask HN: How much coding should beginners learn in the AI era?
#39Re: Ask HN: How much coding should beginners learn in the AI era?
#40That aside, AI era is irrelevant for learning to program so far imo. But it is not possible to guess for 10 years.
I recommend starting something like freecodecamp and reading as many textbooks as possible (written by people that actually teach the subjects). Like the intro to programming book by Guttag
Also learning english well enough to be able to watch conference videos and read textbooks, if you don’t already know it.
Good ways to use AI are code review and finding bugs imo but both of these can be very harmful for learning.
Also would recommend only considering the opinions of people actually write code and earn a living by writing code. And mostly disregarding future projections from anyone.