I want to preface this by saying I’m no programming expert – I’m only a high schooler who started learning how to code a few years back (around 2019). Regardless, I thought I’d share my thoughts on this topic because “code is dead” is being thrown around all the time. Moreover, I loosely use the word AI in this writeup, but I’m referring to LLMs and, more specifically, LLMs tuned for developer tooling.

When I wrote my first line of Python code, I only had access to the Python documentation, YouTube tutorials, and random help forums on the internet. If I didn’t understand a line of code, I would stare at it until it made sense. Or else, I could ask for help on Discord servers and Stack Overflow. I had the habit of not copying code from YouTube tutorials, so this made it easier to understand what each line of code did. After a few months, I knew in-built function signatures like the back of my hand. When I wanted to solve a problem, I could create a mental map of the approach immediately before implementing it in code.

The outcome of learning without AI? I understood principles.

But it was annoying. I spent hours fixing a small syntax error or type error because I couldn’t just ask Cursor-Composer to “fix error pls.” I hated this. I hated spending so long fixing these trivial issues so that I could instead actually write code that mattered. I always wished there could be a way to fix my code with a single shortcut.

Fast forward to 2025, six years later, we do have that. And in retrospect, I’m glad I didn’t have this feature six years ago. I’d say most of my learning experiences came from experimenting and fixing these trivial errors.

The lack of experimentation when writing code with AI just makes for an awful learning process. If AI dev tooling had existed in the hands of 13-year-old me, I would have used it to fix every single bug, so I’m glad it didn’t exist.

I’ll have to admit I still do use Cursor every day to write code because I don’t want to mess around with boring implementation details, especially when building UI, but I think I’m okay with paying the price right now. When I’m building something from scratch (with C or Rust), I still go back to Neovim to rawdog the programming experience with no AI tools. You can check out some of those projects here: https://scratch.shivs.me.

If you’ve made it this far, you should consider leaving your sign on my personal page! Credits to Namanyay’s blog which inspired me to write on this topic. Find me on X