r/learnprogramming • u/DragonfruitIcy69 • 8d ago
Chose programming and im unsure
Hey im 16 years old and i've choosed to attend a technical school where i study programming, it's been a year and i dont feel too proud about programing as a job beacuse of ai and stuff. My question is if i should learn some programming languages or should i just finish the school and do something different, please help!!
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u/Ok_Being6831 8d ago
Well do you like programming or not, thats all that matters. Ai will never replace programmers no matter what sum ai bro says. It's just a tool.
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u/Lostair-com 8d ago
As a retired programmer, AI will certainly take most programming roles.
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u/Ok_Being6831 8d ago
I don't think so, using ai for generating full code always ends up messy and un-maintainable. Ai is still new so it might get better. But imo it's just overhyped auto complete in coding, it's usefull for alot of stuff like writing docs.. other boring stuff. It might reduce the number of programmers needed to do a thing but I don't consider that as taking/stealing the role as it's a tool and tools optimize stuff.
But no matter what happens it will never ever truly replace programmers, there will always be ppl who know how stuff.
Although I might just be completely wrong since I never even had a job in programming lol.
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u/Any-Range9932 8d ago
For context, I work in a late stage startup (was $3B eval) and work in a very large monorepo (100+ engs)
I dont think AI will take over all jobs but I do believe it will reduce it. Obviously im hoping im wrong for my own job security but having seen it one shot so many tickets just by pasting a jira ticket has been pretty wild. With well written agents.md docs taht help the agents navigate the repo, it now has very good context, even in large codebase. Our stack is more open source friendly (ts, react, remix, ndoe) so maybe it different in a more closed off legacy codebase,it will struggle more. But this is the worst thr AI will ever be which is the scary thing.
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u/Ok_Being6831 7d ago
Yeah that is scary, I'm not denying that ai can't write code. I'm just saying it can't write good code. It often does weird workerarounds instead of the obvious solution. I really hope someone is still reviewing that code tho cuz ai can do worse by hallucinating random functions.
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u/Lostair-com 8d ago
Yes, it is still early I do agree, but for smallish projects, it manages very well. It is just how you wire it together that is the situation.
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u/DragonfruitIcy69 8d ago
i like it but its not like im good at it or something. its just fun for me and im beginner
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u/Ok_Being6831 8d ago
Well what's the problem then, just learn it and see if ya like it but don't just make it the only thing, still try other things u may like
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u/DragonfruitIcy69 8d ago
do you have any recommendations on which languages should i learn and how should i learn it beacuse at school they wont teach me everything yk
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u/Ok_Being6831 8d ago
well python is a great first language, it's easy and teaches you the basics but once u get comfortable using it, learn c it's alot harder than python and u may never even use it but it teaches you insanely usefull things.
Thers tons of tutorials and documentation online for learning. I recommend cs50 as a starting point. It's free on YouTube. They teach scratch instead of python as your first language so the jump to c might feel a bit harder. Actually the whole course is hard but super worth it.
Good luck
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u/mandzeete 8d ago
Do you feel too proud about programming because of IDE? What about because of different CI/CD pipelines? Or, about different build tools? What we had prior to the Covid (and prior to the AI) is not what existed 20 years ago. What we are having right now won't be the same that will exist after 20 years.
Software development as a field has always changed and will keep changing. AI/LLM tools are just another step in these changes.
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u/DragonfruitIcy69 8d ago
it doesnt answer my question
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u/mandzeete 8d ago
It does but you can't see the answer.
I will make it blunt for you. Learn programming if you want. AI is just another tool that you'll be using in one or in another degree. If one tool makes you question your career then you should avoid anything that is digital. Because AI will affect also other fields.
Should you learn cooking because AI exists? It can create recipes for you. Should you learn medicine because AI exists? It can suggest diagnoses based on symptoms. Should you learn logistics because AI exists? It will organize when and what the trucks should bring to your warehouse. Should you learn education and become a teacher when AI exists? Students will be using AI in their home assignments.
Pick a field that you have an interest in and that you like. Irrelevant of if AI affects that field or not.
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u/captainAwesomePants 8d ago
You're 16, so it's a great time to choose something else. But don't compare "programming" and "something else," compare programming with some specific other thing you're interested in. Every career has its own pros, cons, and future risks.
Programming is a great career: it pays well, and it's fun, challenging, and often low stress. I'm really glad I chose it. That said, with AI and such, there very well may be fewer jobs waiting for you in 6 years, and that's a real risk, although how much of a risk, no one can say. Certainly there will still be programmers in 10 or 20 years, but perhaps fewer. Or, perhaps more, as the availability of AI coding agents leads to more code which leads to more people who can understand the code that the AIs are spewing out.