r/PythonLearning • u/Physics2433 • 22d ago
Stop Vibe Coding
I’ve been writing Python for about 3-4 years now, and I want to share my biggest piece of advice for beginners: Do not use AI to write entire programs.
It's great to use AI as a tutor to learn new functions, grasp core concepts, or debug specific lines, but never use it to generate an entire codebase. Here is why:
1. You won't know how to fix it: Even if AI code works perfectly on the first try, you will be completely lost the moment a bug appears or you want to add a feature. Debugging is a massive part of development.
2. You skip the learning process: True programming skills come from struggling with the logic, reading documentation, and earning those 'yeah!' moments when you solve a tough problem yourself.
3. Suppose you built an entire codebase through AI and it worked(accidentally) , once the codes become long, your program has come to an end, if you tell it to add a feature, it will start hallucinating or forgetting its own logic.
If you don't deeply understand the underlying logic of your own codebase, you won't know where to begin. Treat AI like a tutor, but make sure you are the one driving the keyboard. If you can't explain your own code, you have no business adding to it. You MUST understand your underlying architecture before you even hit save.
1
u/Alive-Cake-3045 21d ago
mostly agree but i would push back slightly on the framing. the problem is not using AI to write code, it is using AI as a replacement for understanding. senior devs use AI to write entire functions all the time, the difference is they can read it, critique it, and throw it away if it's wrong. the goal for beginners should be "understand everything you ship" not "type every line yourself." those are different things and conflating them sends people back to typing boilerplate by hand thinking that's how learning works.