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Ask HN: How to get back into programming without AI?

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Re: Ask HN: How to get back into programming without AI?

#3

Post by coolcoder613 »

grasbergerm wrote: post #2

This is a genuine question, to get more context: What's stopping you from programming without AI?

The conflict between wanting the result versus wanting to program. The result tends to win out. Instant gratification, in short. If I want something enough to not lose interest when programming it myself, I usually want it enough to forego programming it myself in favour of having it earlier.

Re: Ask HN: How to get back into programming without AI?

#4

Post by delis-thumbs-7e »

- Remove AI from your editor completely. - Start a project which is easy and fun for you,something you did when first learning to code. Text-based adventure game, or some silly little app that is just for fun. - Or take a new language or some aspect of coding, that you have only brushed over, but want to learn better, and learn it properly by doing coding exercises or some silly project that teaches you the syntax etc. - Most importantly relearn how fun coding is

I use Claude only to ask questions (in separate virtual desktop, no chat inside the editor) if I can’t grokk the doc’s or find the answer online. This keeps the LLM input valuable, but not using it as a crutch, and me honest and learning constantly.

Re: Ask HN: How to get back into programming without AI?

#5

Post by coolcoder613 »

delis-thumbs-7e wrote: post #4

- Remove AI from your editor completely. - Start a project which is easy and fun for you,something you did when first learning to code. Text-based adventure game, or some silly little app that is just for fun. - Or take a new language or some aspect of coding, that you have only brushed over, but want to learn better, and learn it properly by doing coding exercises or some silly project that teaches you the syntax et…

  1. I don't have AI in my editor in the first place, mostly use web chat with a bit of gemini CLI
  2. Good ideas; worth considering
  3. I'll pass
  4. That is my goal
I think the last time I really tried to code by hand was a temporal clock. I thought it would be simple but I bit off more than I could chew math-wise. The last time I was sucessful (as far as I can remember) was a small PR to a game mod manager.

Re: Ask HN: How to get back into programming without AI?

#7

Post by grasbergerm »

coolcoder613 wrote: post #3
grasbergerm wrote: post #2

This is a genuine question, to get more context: What's stopping you from programming without AI?

The conflict between wanting the result versus wanting to program. The result tends to win out. Instant gratification, in short. If I want something enough to not lose interest when programming it myself, I usually want it enough to forego programming it myself in favour of having it earlier.

It sounds like you just don't want to write code by hand then. You prefer instant gratification over writing code yourself. You said you miss programming without AI, my read here is that you do not have a strong desire to program without AI. Both things can be true, there's no dichotomy here.

Re: Ask HN: How to get back into programming without AI?

#8

Post by coolcoder613 »

grasbergerm wrote: post #7
coolcoder613 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The conflict between wanting the result versus wanting to program. The result tends to win out. Instant gratification, in short. If I want something enough to not lose interest when programming it myself, I usually want it enough to forego programming it myself in favour of having it earlier.

It sounds like you just don't want to write code by hand then. You prefer instant gratification over writing code yourself. You said you miss programming without AI, my read here is that you do not have a strong desire to program without AI. Both things can be true, there's no dichotomy here.

Not exactly, that's more due to the projects. Let's say I want a music player with scrolling lyrics, I have a greater desire to have and use that music player than I do to build it. If there was a music player that already did exactly what I wanted I would use that. I think that might be a good way to put it: What I may be looking for is a project that I would build even if it already existed.

Re: Ask HN: How to get back into programming without AI?

#9

Post by yashnitro »

I don’t think the goal should necessarily be “without AI,” but more “without depending on AI before thinking through the problem yourself.”

One thing that helped me was forcing myself to: - design architecture first - debug manually for a while - read docs before prompting - use AI more like a reviewer than an autopilot

The fun part of programming for me was always the problem-solving loop, and it’s easy to accidentally skip that now.

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