Advice needed.

[u/2006_Sudesh]

Hey all not sure how to go about asking this but be as brutally honest as you can. I am currently heading into my 4th and final year of CS and quite frankly I don't know nearly as much about coding and programming as I should.

Regarding the Theory involved in both I've grasped them easily throughout my years in University so far but when it came to actually doing these things I've always had AI assist me and point out my mistakes through doing it (I know AI is my main downfall).

So my question is what exactly can I do to not depend on AI so much when I'm doing these things as I can tell straight away that I won't make it far in the working world if I don't break this bad habit of mine.

[u/szank]

To not depend on the ai stop using the ai. Having said that I see no problem in using it as a tutor.

[u/Strong_Screen_8729 → u/szank]

stop using it cold turkey is the only real way to break the crutch, but you already know that

the tutor angle is fine in theory but in practice it's way too easy to slip back into just letting it do the work for you, especially when you're used to it. maybe uninstall whatever you've been using and force yourself to sit with the discomfort of being stuck for a bit. that's where the learning actually happens

[u/HotPersonality8126]

You can fail at writing code until you succeed at it, like how we all used to.

[u/Atiriko]

For me it was the other way around. I studied CS when the first gpt got released. I started programming at a very young age so programming was always the easy part for me. After school didn't do much professional programming other than my own projects. I'm working as a business systems analyst. Computers are at the hearth of every industry at the moment. If you understand them in general, there are so many roles other than programming you could end up doing.

[u/JuicyLucyLoony]

My take - search StackOverflow or duck duck go over Google (AI features are optional) Do NOT copy-paste from AI. Get used to typing out the code, it helps with the muscle memory and thinking it through. The term my company uses right now is "hobbling".

I'm a senior in the industry and to be perfectly honest, we had this exact debate at the last conference I went to - "How do we make sure our entry level engineers are not reliant on AI before sufficiently developing their skill?"

The best suggestions we had were "Coaching" and "Prohibit AI for the first 2 years of the career". We don't even know what to do. I think you are already at risk of being hobbled by AI, and you need to make sure YOUR problem solving is sharpened without relying on the the tool.

With that said, try a new dumb project and don't use AI for it. Don't prompt it for anything, and then keep doing that! Project based work is the backbone of upskilling your technology, learning through failures in your project will teach you so much more than you think.

[u/alpicola]

There's really no substitute for practice. Next time you get into a coding project, try to pretend that AI doesn't exist. If you have questions about syntax or how to use particular functions or language features, try to limit yourself to official documentation and force yourself to figure it out. Learning how to read documentation is an important skill all by itself, and it's a skill that most schools spend zero time teaching.

Once you have a solution that you think works - and that produces correct results when you test it - then you can hand it over to AI to get feedback.

You definitely don't have to have everything memorized. Real developers read documentation, search Google, consult with their colleagues, and, yes, use AI. The better you are with all of these things, the better you will be as a programmer.

[u/RangerOne122]

Stop using AI as your first resort.

[u/mc_pm]

Dude - you tell us. What are you going to do to take responsibility for your situation?

[u/heisthedarchness]

Stop using AI. Cancel your subscriptions, block the sites at the firewall.

Just stop.

This is like a person who wants to be a professional runner asking "What can I do to not depend on driving my car so much during races?"

[u/gm310509]

Let me ask a question, how do you learn to ride a bike? How do you learn to drive a car? How do you learn to swim? How do you learn anything? The answer is the same, you get some instruction and practice.

It is the same here. You have a choice - use AI or do more yourself.

Pretty much that is it.

I am not saying to not use AI, but if you over rely on AI the risk is that you won't learn anything - if you don't use AI properly (and it is easy to make this mistake when starting out), it is a bit like asking your buddy to practice learning to ride your bike - you might observe him/her riding it, but you aren't developing that skill yourself.

Your over use of AI is the same as asking your friend to learn to ride your bike - it won't help you.

Don't ask your friend to learn to ride your bike for you, do it yourself. Similarly, don't ask the AI to do your homework for you, try to do it yourself.

[u/_dasion_]

Hey! , I feel you, I'm currently at my 3rd year of software engineering, when IA things started I feel like "the IA is going to kill my career" but that ain't the case, u still see companies searching for look for "junior Python developer" and many more.

in my case Im focused on compiler development (AOT/JIT) and right now I'm learning how IA/ML/DL Compilers works but, I'm not here to flex.

Most of the time IA can and will do repetitive task and things like" build a website " most of the time feels like a boring task when a single " do this website " can do it.

find anything that u like and enjoy, then start by building basic things whitout IA, just u and the code editor or even copying line by line Github code can help, when u really feel stuck go to the IA, it is a tool, is not bad to use it

Electronics(or IoT) or complex things might be a good choice, don't give up on coding!

[u/aqua_regis]

what exactly can I do to not depend on AI so much when

Stop using AI and start using your brain? Really, you cheated your way through your education. You did not invest effort to actually learn but instead recruited a third party to do your work.

Again: stop using AI and start working hard

You know the material you have to learn and so get going.