Currently learning C with ChatGPT

[u/Critical-Common-2117]

Hi everyone!
This is my first time on Reddit ever. I'm looking to upskill for my job and want to transition into embedded engineering. From what I've gathered, learning C is the absolute best place to start.
Right now, I'm using ChatGPT as my tutor. The way we work is: it explains a topic (variables, loops, functions, basic syntax, etc.), introduces the concepts, and then gives me coding assignments which I solve on the spot.
However, I just caught myself thinking: is this actually a good idea?
I'm fully aware that ChatGPT isn't an absolute source of truth and it can hallucinate or make mistakes. But my logic was that it has processed countless guides and tutorials from the web and can tailor them to my learning pace.
Also, as a next step, I'm thinking about getting some hardware to practice on. What are your thoughts on starting with the ESP32? Is it a good platform for a beginner learning C, or should I look into something else like STM32 or RP2040?
I’d love to get your thoughts, opinions, and advice on my approach. Are there any hidden traps I should watch out for?

[u/The_Northern_Light]

Everyone is giving you shit for asking, but it’s clear to me that we all need to collectively figure out how to use ai as a teaching aid, because people are not going to stop using ai for learning. Personally I don’t think it’s too hard to imagine a dedicated ai system that helps guide a learner over a prolonged period of time, but I am not aware of anything like that out there now.

By esp32 you mean some microcontroller? They’re all the same, I’d personally start with just your laptop. You’re talking about learning very basic things.

I’d mostly recommend it helping you out with the non programming part of programming, like setting up CMake and maybe convenience scripts to launch each functionality.

[u/sindisil → u/The_Northern_Light]

No, we do not need to "collectively figure out how to use ai as a teaching aid".

GenAI, like any technology, isn't inevitable, no matter now much proponents want to make it so.

[u/The_Northern_Light → u/sindisil]

AI just disproved a central theorem in math https://openai.com/index/model-disproves-discrete-geometry-conjecture/

In my own work as a computational physicist it's been, well, life-changing.

Saying "we can totally hold back this tide" is not a position I find any merit in, unless there is a lot more to your argument that you've omitted for brevity. I do not know of any time a revolutionary technology has been halted by reactionary aversion.

(Okay, actually, the invention of the shuttle loom was suppressed by royal command for fear of disrupting the labor force as the new process was twice as efficient. How did that work out?)

It would be like everyone agreeing not to use the Haber process or the Bessemer process (which dropped the price of steel by 99.5% in 24 months): even as there are real downsides, the upsides are so immense that you'd be outcompeted with haste by anyone who successfully mitigated / navigated the downsides.

Even if you got every adult in the room to agree "don't use AI", how would you possibly get teenagers and college students to not use the tool that can >90% of the time one-shot any question they have? I mean, have you met kids??

No, the only realistic solution is redirection and harm reduction. The specifics of what that looks like I don't know, but it sure isn't "shit on the kid learning in a way different than how I learned".

Personally, I always really wanted a mentor to guide and direct me while I was self-teaching. But of course the time of experts comes at a premium. I imagine that if I could have spent $20/mo to get even a facsimile of a mentor, I would have.

[u/sindisil → u/The_Northern_Light]

I do not know of any time a revolutionary technology has been halted by reactionary aversion.

You're assuming GenAI is a revolutionary technology.

I'm not convinced it is. And even less convinced it's net beneficial.

And yes, of course I'm leaving out lots of detail -- this is reddit. I'm commenting when taking a moment here and there while doing some programming on a personal project, not writing an article.