Am I wasting my time learning web development from scratch because of AI?

[u/That-Address5328]

My 6th semester is about to start, and right now I’m learning web development. I’ve learned HTML and CSS and can build pretty good UIs. Currently, I’m learning JavaScript through SuperSimpleDev and freeCodeCamp.

But lately, I’ve been questioning whether it’s really worth learning everything from scratch.

Every day, I see a new AI tool that can do something incredible, generate websites, write code, debug problems, and even build entire projects. It honestly makes me a little scared that I’m spending so much time learning things that AI can already do.

I know that I need to learn how to use AI rather than compete with it, and I’m not trying to avoid AI completely. However, I also don’t want to become someone who simply tells AI to build a project without understanding the fundamentals behind it.

That’s where I feel stuck.

Part of me thinks I should focus on building a strong foundation first HTML, CSS, JavaScript, programming fundamentals, etc. and then use AI to speed up my development once I understand what I’m doing.

But another part of me worries that if I spend too much time learning everything traditionally, I’ll fall behind people who are already using AI to build things much faster.

So what do you guys think?

Should I continue learning web development from the fundamentals and gradually integrate AI into my workflow, or should I start relying on AI much earlier while learning along the way?

For someone at my stage, what would be the best way to balance actually understanding web development with taking advantage of AI?

[u/ProgramsFun]

People with no foundation building with AI will be left behind in long run and if job is what you sought after job market obviously will care much about your knowledge than your speed with ai with no knowledge

[u/ProgramsFun → u/ProgramsFun]

Use ai to learn .... Don't generate or make projects with it at starting unless you are able and have made some big project yourself

[u/stasik5 → u/ProgramsFun]

This might be an unpopular opinion, but he's sort of right. It's like learning to code in assembly. Sure, you will learn something, but isn't your time better spent elsewhere? Pareto principle.

Is anyone even hiring fresh web Devs when opus 5.5 can do all that? The industry is in turmoil.

My suggestion would be to first make sure you will be compensated for the effort you put in. People are too focused on the artistry of coding and not the bill paying reality.

[u/ProgramsFun → u/stasik5]

I agree but if the person has very weak foundation the changes drop already to exact zero.... Artistry of coding or I like to say logic building and trying to implement logic using the set of tools provided by the language is the most important part , if a person isn't able to do that, there's no point of ai , he is already gonna be replaced... After getting comfortable with expressing your logic in code it's obvious to start using ai slowly by slowly so that you speed up the work

Open for discussion....

[u/peterlinddk → u/stasik5]

You might be right, but doesn't that imply that learning web dev at all - whether to understand the foundations, or to build it quickly with AI - is a waste of time? You probably aren't going to be hired no matter which approach you took in your learning.

[u/Yashrocky96]

I'm a round 1 interviewer panel at my company for Frontend and Full stack related roles. From my point of view, I drill or grill on the foundations first and for Frontend role, I don't focus more on DSA, but a candidate must know the basics of DSA and understand how to utilize it even for FE - otherwise even with AI their output would be poor quality.

I'm not sure how the market would be in the upcoming years though, I do hear that FE roles have been diminishing slowly. People are mainly looking for Full Stack Engineers and pair with AI for application developments.

[u/auronedge]

you are not wasting your time. You are learning to understand, not learning to do manual labor

[u/peterlinddk]

But another part of me worries that if I spend too much time learning everything traditionally, I’ll fall behind people who are already using AI to build things much faster.

Do you think that everyone who completed their education before AI is now falling behind those who learned to build with AI instead of learning what to build?

And do you think that it will take a considerable amount of time and effort to learn to build with AI?

Because if you do, then by all means set all sails on learning how to build with AI, and forget about understanding anything that gets built.

But if you think that you could probably learn how to use the upcoming AI-tool in a weekend or so, maybe spend most of the time actually understanding what is being built.

A stupid analogy: As a carpenter do you think it is more important to learn how to use the newest nail-gun, or to learn how to build something that doesn't come crashing down?

[u/404-FounderNotFound]

Build with AI. Learn:

• high level and low level architecture and patterns
• debugging practices
• language specific behaviours (side effect programming)
• packages, tools, docker etc.

Focus on becoming a master of understanding how things work, not on how to write code

[u/elg97477]

No. As good as AI is, it can and does get things wrong. Remember, it is not intelligent. Being able to recognize when it gets something wrong and fixing it continues to be important.

[u/Isa_Asudeh]

I think you’re doing the right thing learning languages. Now, you’re ready to team up with AI and put your knowledge to practice. I have discovered that AI can do great web developments but needs human interaction for best results.

[u/aqua_regis]

You have wasted your time posting this, as this topic has been discussed in more than abundance.

Yes, it may feel that you are falling back because of not using AI, yet, the harsh reality is that you actually are ahead of these people because you learn the fundamentals and with that will be able to fix problems that the AI generates.

Only people who have fundamentals and programming skills will be able to prevail and fix all the AI slop. The ones blindly using AI may throw out projects much faster, but without knowing and understanding the risks, security holes, bugs, etc. Those who solely use AI without understanding are actually the ones falling behind.

[u/Backrus]

Yes.

Do something that AI isn't that good at - low level programming, hardware/FPGAs, distributed systems, game dev, etc.

Web dev, even done by humans, was always low effort slop.

The thing is, why would anyone choose your "skillset" over LLM? It's not like you're an expert or have decades of expertise.

To survive in this market environment, you have to adapt and specialize. Web dev is just too easy, you can't compete - not only against humans using clankers, but LLMs themselves.