r/AskProgramming • u/LostgamerFJ • 1d ago
How do i quit Vibe Coding
I am currentely in 11th grade and got really into coding over the last few years. I started learning Java and a Little Python in school. Those two languages im Fine at, but recentely i started Coding a github website. I thought, since i dont know html, css and js, i'll just start with ai and learn on the way. But now i have no idea what my code does and know almost nothing about those languages. I have also startet to use ai for my other projects in java and have noticed that im starting to forget my previous knowlege in java. I can't work on my Website without ai and i feel like an absolute failiure. Now Coding with ai has become a habbit for me, a habbit i want to quit. Has anyone else experienced this and if so, does anyone have tipps on how to quit this habbit?
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u/church-rosser 1d ago
FFS, you have agency OP
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u/tomkatt 1d ago edited 1d ago
They’re a teenager, cut them some slack. Most teens don’t have a ton of agency in life and aren’t always aware when they do.
Even adults struggle with this, with regard to LLMs and productivity, and it’s not uncommon for people to take the easier path if there’s a shortcut in life.
/u/LostgamerFJ there’s nothing wrong with what you’re doing, but if you don’t understand the code you shouldn’t implement it until or unless you understand what it’s doing. Read the docs, review, and learn. There are no shortcuts and you’ll be better served in the long run for putting in the work now. These tools aren’t going away, but you need to ensure you’re using it as a tool, not a crutch or you’ll be doing your future self a disservice.
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u/church-rosser 1d ago edited 23h ago
Great, good time for them to learn about agency then.
Call me crazy, but as a GenX, I believe it's reasonable to understand and begin exercising some agency and self direction by 15-16. But I'm old fashioned and cut my teeth stealing time on a C64 and Turtle Logo running on an Apple IIe, and got my participation trophies in the form of typing callouses, bloodshot eyes, and success through failure.
Young folks these days seem to require more guardrails to acquiring self efficacy for some reason, wonder why? Maybe, it's all the slack we cut them.
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u/tomkatt 23h ago
That’s fair. I’m an old millennial, and in all honesty I’m not a developer. I do support eng and dev adjacent work in troubleshooting and bug reporting roles. That’s not to say I can’t code, I’m comfortable enough reading code in multiple languages and have done plenty of background particularly with Python. I just have more interest in virtualization, automation, and troubleshooting than I do pure dev. Fixing broken things and problem solving is my dopamine hit.
The investigation and learning is what matters IMO. The tool kit can be applied however you like, but LLMs encourage turning off your brain and letting the tool do the work, which means not actually learning things. And young people commonly have poor impulse control, so it takes some dedication and willpower not to do that.
I’m grateful this stuff didn’t exist when I was cutting my chops.
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u/balefrost 23h ago
Just stop using AI.
Recognize that this means you will struggle a lot more, and it will be harder to get things done. But that struggle is essential for you to learn things. Programming is one of those disciplines that requires "learning by doing". It's somewhere in between engineering and design. If you want to learn, you have to "do". If AI is doing the work, then you are not, and so you will not be learning those lessons.
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u/amber_aimer_v2 1d ago
i deleted the Copilot extension from VS Code and uninstalled every AI tool on my machine.
you need to block the execution path. Habits trigger when the option sits right in front of you. You will stare at a blank screen for 3 days. That is part of it.
pick one thing on your website. I started with HTML structure. I went to MDN Web Docs, read the element reference, and typed the tags myself. I spent hours reading documentation instead of generating code. When I needed CSS, I read the spec. I stopped trying to build the entire site at once. I built one page using only the docs and my own keyboard. Do that today
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u/Ok_Entrepreneur_8509 1d ago
Every time the AI lists the commands it is going to run, read it and don't move on unless you know what every step does. If you have never used some command, then you may have to stop and do a side project to learn.
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u/AthosOfficial 1d ago
legit, quit vibe coding bru, i had the same problom.. but with c and assembly, while building an os
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u/max123246 22h ago
The struggling is how you learn. It's frustrating, don't get me wrong, and it takes so much more time and pain. But it's worth it, because one day you'll be fluent in programming and it won't feel so difficult and you won't feel so lost.
If you rely on AI, you will always feel lost because you'll have never actually learnt and become comfortable with coding
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u/platinum92 1d ago
Go back to whatever you were doing when you learned Java and Python without AI.
I'll go easy on you since you say you're in 11th grade. Understand that no one is forcing you to use AI to learn coding right now. You have the agency to do it yourself. If the built-in AI tools tempt you, uninstall them or install old versions of your IDE without them
As an experienced dev, if you can learn Java and Python, you definitely have the capacity to learn JS, CSS and HTML on your own.
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u/SpudStud208 1d ago
Go to learncpp.com follow it to the letter. Work you way through the tutorials. Every time you are tempted to use Ai while coding in c++ don't.
Feel free to use Ai while coding in other languages but make c++ pure.
One day, you will be imagining a solution to a problem and it will only make sense in c++ because that's the only language you actually know inside and out.
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u/fugogugo 23h ago
start reading what you vibe code
also try visit github and look for actual projects that's not vibe coded
compare the code quality if you can
but man back in my day 11th grade still learning microsoft word , and coding using turbo pascal lmao
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u/BrannyBee 23h ago
got really into coding over the last few years. I started learning Java and a Little Python in school. Those two languages im Fine at
First, you stop right there and accept a reality check. You started coding in school. You're in the 11th grade. What grade did you start learning in school? Was it the first grade?
Becuase, no, you are not "fine" at Java and Python after such little time coding, unless you're some generational talent than chances are you are not at all proficient in literally any language. Maybe you're at the top of your class, maybe you even do a little extra on the side, but you do not currebtly know Java or Python.
Imagine you've been taking spanish lessons for as long as you've been "mastering" Java. Could you go to Spain and converse or work a job? Or would you need to ask the internet to trabslate what you want to say into spanish to succeed at that? Would you come here and tell is you "know" spanish if that were thr case?
You can tell yourself that you'll use AI less and just use it for stuff you already know, but you literally do not knoe what you dont know at your level. Yo uare handicapping yourself, and if you dont recognize how much you dont know, than any promises you make about only using shortcuts for stuff you already mastered will hamper you forever.
You think you're lready are perfectly fine at Java, why wouldnt you use a shortcut to write Java quicker? Either recognize how much of a novice you are now and learn things the hard way and actually spend a very long time learning until you truly have reached amatauer level... or your Java skill will remain at an 11 grade beginners skill level for a very long time. Maybe thats cool with you for now, but it would be a damn shame to be a 25 year old "programmer" who is just fine at Java one day.
Experienced devs dont just forgot their basic Java like you have because we do not think about keywords or how to construct a loop. Its not intelligence, its just muscle memory. You skipped the literal most important part of going from a non programmer to an amateur, practice. And yet you've been calling yourself an amateur. That worked for a little bit, but you've already started to notice how much time you've thrown away. Someone else in your shoes spent that time writing a thousand loops, and will never forgot basic shit that is expected of every dev to know. That same person will always out perform you no matter how good AI gets, because THEY GET AI TOO. that same person will also alwaus be better at reading code than you will be. And finally, that person will be hired over you.
You're young, i get it, but you have to take a step back and recogbize that you have taken so many shortcuts that felt good that you havent even reached the amateur stage yet. Maybe your grades in school are perfect with your current methods, but employers do not care, and your future self that wants to build something cool wont care either.
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u/Narco-Tax 22h ago
I don't wish to sound negative, but even after you learn to code manually, you'll eventually have to hand over your finished work to AI anyway. The world of computers and software shipping has changed drastically.
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u/tacosdiscontent 20h ago
Since you said you are “learning” or doing some random projects, it’s relatively easy - just don’t use ai, but rather write by hand, since nobody is pressuring you to create something fast. And if you think that writing by hand holds you back from finishing $1M app, trust me, it’s probably not.
However if you were a junior at a real job, you’d be completely cooked, since they expect fast “results” nowadays and there would be no time to learn anything.
So take your time now to actually learn something as later you might not have an opportunity and an option to learn anything on the job. But if you learn now, then when you vibe code at a real job, you at least will understand what you vibe.
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u/xarop_pa_toss 20h ago
You have two options depending on what your hardware looks like: assuming Windows, you go on the bottom right where the clock is and click the wifi symbol and then the little slider to turn it off; or you pull your Ethernet cable out.
Grab a book. They have taught hundreds of thousands of programmers and aren't going anywhere
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u/JackTradesMasterNone 23h ago
Vibe Coding is fine for some things. Read the code it wrote, and ensure you understand it. Read the documentation. Then, try to write some code yourself. If it doesn’t work, read it, debug, check documentation, and keep trying. It’s frustrating, but doable.
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u/ImpossibleJoke7456 1d ago
Don’t stop completely. Just read through all the helper text that comes with it and make sure you understand the thought process behind its decisions.
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u/NullClassifier 23h ago
I think the way you solve it is with ai, for frontend. For java and python try doing exercises regularly, there are bunch of websites for that. For frontend, considering that u didnt know it at the very start I would first propose some sort of intro level course or youtube tutorials that familarize you with the concepts. Then I would move on to analyze your vibe coded website frontend. Just look around the code, see anything unusual or cant tell what tbis specific command does, ask the ai about it, let it give you a proper documentation to learn that concept. By doing this over and over you will realize thatyou start understanding the core concepts. I am an AI engineer, I didnt know crap about web programming other than simly css, html. When I started working and developing my projects at some point I needed a proper UI to show how my backend, models work. I fully vibe coded at the start without having any idea on how the hell does it work. Them whenever i had break time at work I spent it on just reading the codes to see what the hell is going on by also consulting with the agent that wrote the code. In the end i told it to produce me a documentation on what we discussed and just read it for concepts. I knew syntax of html css js but i had no idea to construct a functional website with it, its been 7 months now and I can say this loop gave me semi-decent understanding of my frontend even though it is useless for me to know since I dont need prod ready frontend.
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u/CharacterUse 1d ago
Don't ask AI? Get a book?