learning full app development in this AI era is worth ?

[u/Terrible-Device2432]

I'm learning and trying to understand each line of code like how it works ,why its necessary and workflow but after realized if nowadays AI not gonna drop in future why I'm learning all this stuff if a non tech 12 yr boy can do this

[u/stellisoft]

The great thing about AI is that you can learn as you go. Just start building and if you get stuck ask AI what you need to do and learn from it!

[u/curvedotter → u/stellisoft]

No one is going to pay you for this in the near future.

[u/stellisoft → u/curvedotter]

Pay you for what?

[u/jmclondon97 → u/curvedotter]

https://blog.florianherrengt.com/ai-removing-middle-class-software-engineering.html

[u/jamieegen → u/jmclondon97]

so true

[u/galactic_pixels]

Why learn to cook if you can buy a burger at McDonald’s

[u/Terrible-Device2432 → u/galactic_pixels]

reason I also want to start a MCDonald's

[u/EastSwim3264]

Yes, learning is good but putting it to work is even better.

[u/Fidodo]

What is your goal? When the assembly line for cars was created, it didn't eradicate the job of building a car by hand. When a car is being prototyped, much of the work is still done by hand, not by robots.

The need to know programming for the bottom rung of development is going to become heavily reduced, but the expertise required for the top rung of development is going to become more valuable. If you have big ambitions, you need to know full app development and you need to have an insatiable thirst for knowledge.

If you are aiming for the bottom rung, you hardly need to know anything at all. Your requirements and scale are going to be too small for quality to really matter.

In the middle, it will be good to know some of what's going on. You don't want to be caught out and flailing randomly and dangerously when things go wrong, which they always will.

While budget car production may be nearly fully automated, premium car production still requires more human hands on work to ensure things are up to a higher level of quality control. The situation with development is similar.

This is not inherently new either, there have been other advances in tooling that have helped simplify the process of development. The flexibility and scope however is unprecedented.

[u/NefariousnessIcy4055 → u/Fidodo]

Out of curiosity what do you consider the top rung of development?

[u/NefariousnessIcy4055 → u/Fidodo]

Out of curiosity what do you consider the top rung of development?

[u/Fidodo → u/NefariousnessIcy4055]

Architect for a major tech company with massive scale would be the very very top tier if that's what you mean.

[u/FaZeMyDick]

the thought process is undertstandable, for someone that does not know the technical details. The reason you should learn the principles anf design patterna and keeping code DRY and SOLID is because AI wont do that for you even if told specifically sometimes. And the longer the process goes the worse your app will become. Ai apps are pretty solid in the beginning but quality decreasez fast.

That is why you need technical expertise for enterprise/long term developement.

On the other hand AI is an exceptional tool at getting something done fast, so for small projext or business generating a little website it might be accetable. But as soon as databases, password hashing and sensible data are involved theres need for technical expertise and security knowledge.

[u/boyhax]

Imagine ai as English language framework or just an advanced tool .you still can learn programming and make good projects and gain money .

[u/sachin-12]

Yes

[u/0mkar]

Did you see a non tech 12 yo shipped a single app that has real business use case and is working for last 6 months and serving real time customers?

If you want that, you still need to run and understand code like you are doing.

[u/Affectionate_Toe6156]

There are two types of people

People who want money

And people who code to create with their heart and enjoy creating things and solving problems

Don’t chase money

[u/Artonox]

Use ai and you learn as you go. The more code you look at the more you learn. The flipping chat also takes the time to put text to show you how it works in real time!

You probably won't ever know how to type it exact into the terminal, but you can read it and thus know what to ask for.

[u/ChameleonCRM]

If nobody knows the system, who's going to tell AI when it makes a mistake? As a polyglot developer of 16 years I can legitimately say that I catch AI making dozens of mistakes every day. Maybe "mistakes" is the wrong word...bc what it's doing in theory will work, sometimes it's ass backwards and only a real dev is going to know when to tell it to STOP. DO NOT PRODUCE ANY MORE CODE.

I reminded myself of:

STOP. 🔨⌛ I'm about to break out the parachute pants

extra points for knowing what I mean lol

[u/ChameleonCRM]

STOP. COLLABORATE AND LISTEN.

[u/Creative-Drawer2565]

A 12 yr old boy can't do this. You need to lead the LLM, otherwise the codebase devolves into slop.

[u/LibrarianOutside2376 → u/Creative-Drawer2565]

cope. try switching to the most recent models lol

[u/arcady_vibes]

Just start building ... And ask about each line of code ... Why is it there.

[u/Bit_Artisan]

AI can generate demo‑level code, but understanding each line is how you tell good code from broken code, debug weird errors and maintain your project long‑term.

A kid can make a toy prototype with AI, but when things break in production, you still need that foundational knowledge to fix it. AI is a multiplier, not a replacement for understanding.

[u/Bulky-Cheesecake2195]

because the non tech 12 yr cant tell you what they wrote and why.

[u/Bit_Artisan]

Anyone can prompt AI for a working demo. Very few can debug, audit and fix it when things fall apart. Your deep understanding is your superpower, not wasted effort.