As someone who wants to work in tech in the future, say 5-10 years from now, to what extent do you think coding will be a valuable skill? How much should I learn?
Ask HN: How much coding should beginners learn in the AI era?
1–10 of 73 posts
Re: Ask HN: How much coding should beginners learn in the AI era?
#2If you don't know how to code, you can't possibly supervise a coding agent. You'd have no way of knowing if the idioms it used are correct or bolted on from another technology in a weird way. You'd have no idea if there's a better way to do a task using features available in the standard library. You wouldn't know if you're using a hammer for a task that requires a screwdriver.
The same goes for learning your second programming language, and the third, and the fourth...
Re: Ask HN: How much coding should beginners learn in the AI era?
#3Even with coding agents, I think beginners still benefit from learning enough to understand system behavior, debugging, and tradeoffs. In our experience, AI accelerates implementation, but understanding why something breaks remains extremely valuable.
But I'll say in 5 years most coding work would be done by agents.
Re: Ask HN: How much coding should beginners learn in the AI era?
#4Mathematicians don’t skip past the basics and jump straight into differential equations just because we have calculators, nor do chefs eschew knife skills because we have food processors.
Re: Ask HN: How much coding should beginners learn in the AI era?
#5All 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?
#6Learning how to code will teach you how to break down problems and think in the way you’ll need to think to use and review code form AI. It will also teach you the language needed… not just the syntax of a programming language, but what is a function, variable, loop, conditional, etc. This will help you better talk to the AI and understand it. Trying to describe a concept you don’t really understand, when there is a simple word that can be used, will save a lot of trouble and headaches.
I’d learn as much as you can without the help or use of AI, to build a solid foundation. If AI falls on its face, you’ll be ahead of all those who didn’t do that. If AI ends up being great, you’ll be able to better utilize it if you speak the same language.
As far as I see it, there is only upside to learning. Even if you’re not going into the industry, learning to code helps the thinking process in a way I think almost anyone can benefit from.
Re: Ask HN: How much coding should beginners learn in the AI era?
#7Enough to get through CS101. Databases, networks, operating systems, and all that hardware will certainly be around. Agents can work through them but the trust deficit will still be present(unless something fundamentally changes). So, learn coding but don't get obsessed with it.
Re: Ask HN: How much coding should beginners learn in the AI era?
#8Enough to get through CS101. Databases, networks, operating systems, and all that hardware will certainly be around. Agents can work through them but the trust deficit will still be present(unless something fundamentally changes). So, learn coding but don't get obsessed with it.
> Enough to get through CS101. Databases, networks, operating systems
I don't know what CS101 you took but that covers multiple years of university for me.
Re: Ask HN: How much coding should beginners learn in the AI era?
#9I see this question as akin to "do I really need to learn basic flight skills when my A320 has autopilot?". Yes. Yes, you do. For exactly the same reasons. AI is workload reduction the same way that autopilot is workload reduction when used as intended.
Re: Ask HN: How much coding should beginners learn in the AI era?
#10You must still learn how to program. LLMs do not actually know or understand anything, and so they insert mistakes all the time. To ensure the code is good, you have to review it, and you can't review it if you don't understand it. If you don't learn how to program, you're going to be setting yourself up for a world of hurt when the LLM starts doing a bunch of stupid stuff but you don't know enough to catch it.
Also, you didn't ask but: be careful about going into tech. 5-10 years in the future is probably far enough that we will be able to see how the AI craze impacts jobs, but right now it's a very uncertain career which is at risk of going away because the business people think they can just have AI do everything. They can't, and they will learn that the hard way, but that will be cold comfort if you're out of work in the meantime. So be careful about choosing this field, it's hard to know what the career potential is like right now.