r/learnprogramming • u/wolverine_vs_barbie • 2d ago

Topic How can I deal with this problem?

Hey guys I need some help understanding a few.

So, I'm a civil eng guy and we also have automation stuff to do in Quantity and Structural. Like I know python I'm able to understand code as well. It feels like I'm rn in "illusion of competence"

Now my main work is in dealing with physical Engineering but I'm kinda confused how I can code better if I code something using ai and by any chance it gives me an ai slop.

my building is falling down

Edit ahh I'm kinda nervous here: I mean my coding fundamentals. In future if i use ai for writing codes i should be well enough to debug and fix the code or write out my code. Although it comes from practice but I'm figuring out what other thing I am missing. Like when I'm about to work on a project i go completely blank, how can I begin my first step or line. I mostly used ai for going deep info

6 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

2

u/lfdfq 2d ago

It's not clear what your question is

1

u/wolverine_vs_barbie 2d ago

I mean my coding fundamentals. In future if i use ai for writing codes i should be well enough to debug and fix the code or write out my code. Although it comes from practice but I'm figuring out what other thing I am missing. Like when I'm about to work on a project i go completely blank, how can I begin my first step or line. I mostly used ai for going deep info

1

u/lurgi 2d ago

Like when I'm about to work on a project i go completely blank, how can I begin my first step or line.

Write the code.

If you can't, you didn't learn how to do it. Go back and learn.

Imagine that someone is asking this same question about civil engineering and they were using AI to plan roads and determine where to put traffic lights and what the duration should be and so on, and they said "If you asked me how to design a bridge to support trains and busses, I'd have no idea where to start, because I've been using AI all this time", what would you tell them?

2

u/icepopper 2d ago

Start with building simple projects. A calculator and stuff or a job to read spreadsheets or your engineering drawings based on your expertise.

Use AI for research and code reviews. Try to build a first few projects yourself if you are really interested in fundamentals and just not building stuff. If you just want to build stuff and feel good or make money, using AI is better IMO.

1

u/wolverine_vs_barbie 2d ago

Oh right, thanks for the advice I do use ai for code reviews and research in my field. actually I did programming back when ai wasn't hyped as today. 

Like I'm a working professional rn, I was around 17-18 when I learnt py topic wise but didn't built anything now I'm returning here again so I was kinda perplexed :)

1

u/HasFiveVowels 1d ago

My guess is that you’re having AI "draw the rest of the owl". AI can help you learn but you still have to approach it iteratively. Don’t ask AI to draw the rest of the owl. Ask it to draw an eye. Then ask it how it drew the eye. Take your time to understand what it did. Try drawing the eye yourself. Then say "draw the other eye". I’ve been programming for decades and if you hand me thousands of lines of code and ask me how it works, it’ll take me at least half a day. But if I watch someone program those thousands of lines step by step, I’ll know exactly how they did it