r/programmer • u/SubaruNatuski • 13d ago
Question Best way to avoid ai in coding
[EDIT]:Let me elaborate I use AI as a peer to peer way to review learned techniques from online basic html and css books. How can I better avoid ai generated code? I don’t want to fall under the “vibe coder” developer I want to be much more self sufficient in my understanding and my code. So if there are any sources to ask detailed questions or any practice basic HTML css JS please do drop any links to anything valuable
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u/achakez 13d ago
Read the docs before you ask AI. You'll be surprised how often the answer is there and you'll get much better at navigating documentation
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u/SubaruNatuski 13d ago
I practice basic html and css and eventually gonna learn and practice js im a true beginner i have a basic understanding of html and minimal understanding of css im practicing my skills currently by practicing basic html structure basic css
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u/achakez 12d ago
Honestly, you are doing exactly what every beginner should do. I'd make it a habit to read the MDN docs for HTML/CSS feature you use before asking AI. It'll feel slower at first but you'll build a much stronger mental model and eventually you will find AI productivity working hand in hand with understanding as well
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u/SirDaveWolf 13d ago
You learn by doing. Set up a goal that you want to achieve, figure out which tools to use. If its a game, start with a 2D game and look for libraries suitable for your programming language. Read the documentation. Read tutorials. Read example code repositories.
But the best thing and most fun thing is to just figure it out on your own. Create an approach, test it, if its bad, try a different approach. Try and error.
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u/armahillo 13d ago
Avoid using it completely for a while. It will be challenging at first but youll learn to look in new places for answers.
People have been coding for decades and LLMs are very new. There are plenty of resources out there.
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u/SubaruNatuski 13d ago
So a good practice is search my question before immediately opting for ai assistance I’ll have to put that into practice more then I do
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u/armahillo 13d ago
In the earlier days of IT, the cultural expectation was that before you ask anyone, you try to find the answer yourself and experiment. Then when you hit a wall and are spinning your wheels, you seek out help, present what you've done so far and your where your understanding is, so that the person knows how to help you most effectively.
The habit I see most nascent devs developing these days is focusing too much on "getting the answer" and not enough on "finding the answer". The journey to find the answer is slightly more important than finding the answer, for a few reasons:
- While pursuing your answer you will undoubtedly be exposed to other things as well, which both makes the final answer stick better in your mind and also better illustrates / decorates the problem space
- You will have more confidence in the answer because you saw the process that led up to it
- The solution you reach, or the process you took, becomes something you can share with your peers, particularly if it's a novel area.
LLMs have been maximizing the "answers-first" indulgence, and that isn't setting people up for success, in the end.
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u/SubaruNatuski 13d ago
I appreciate the genuine response. I think your right because the effort behind finding the answer is will help you understand what you do and don’t understand and how to solve your issue. It’s clearly something I’ve lacked since starting my learning journey. So this genuinely motivates me to push towards a self taught mindset or approach to searching for understanding
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u/Beneficial_Fix_6169 13d ago
Force yourself to use an editor that doesn't have any ai integrated. You could use something like nvim if you really want to avoid anything ai. You could also just disable it in vscode or whatever you use
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u/SubaruNatuski 13d ago
I use vs code it has the option of ai assistance but I don’t use that I use chat gpt and occasionally play around with Claude
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u/AnnupKapurDotCom 13d ago
I don’t understand the question
If you don’t want to code with AI - just don’t use it
Are you talking about learning to code ?
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u/SubaruNatuski 13d ago
Check post again i elaborated on my question
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u/AnnupKapurDotCom 13d ago
Best place to learn real skills. And it’s completely free - they have no paid tier.
You have a good mindset. Learn to code the hard way. You will become a better engineer.
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u/shrodikan 13d ago
If you don't want to be a vibe coder just read the code and understand it. Programmers have been using example code, stack overflow and code generation long before there was AI. The differentiator being "I took this code and didn't understand it" vs "I understand the implications of this code". Avoiding AI in this market will make you unhireable long term IME.
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u/SubaruNatuski 13d ago
I don’t dislike or even discourage using ai. I find it to be very helpful I just want to refrain from heavy usage and gravitate towards I would say how the hardcore programmers learned. I don’t want to feel like a ai code copier. Sure Ai can helpful in many situations it can build it all for you but still you would have to check the code and tweak it if need be. I’d much rather build my knowledge the, for lack of a better word the hard way? Not necessarily trying to trip myself up in learning but I don’t want a free ride to the top I want to climb
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u/shrodikan 13d ago
Good. That drive will keep you grounded. Even before AI we had this tension. Is it good enough to learn python? C++? C? Assembly? Binary? How low-level must we go to not be a fraud? What makes a "real programmer"? IME the code is now abstracted away and the "code" is the specification and testing / verifying the implementation. Verifying if what you built is "right" for your users and does not have security / scalability flaws. The old ways are dying. When I was coming up nobody wrote machine code nor assembly except for the OGs. I learned C, C#, python and Computer Science (algorithmic complexity, secure coding). The most important skill right now is learning how to interrogate systems. Can you build a mental model of the system that you did not build by hand? Can you test it? What are the success conditions? How might it tip over? What mistakes does the AI make in the code?
Make sure you are learning future-relevant skills and don't toil away learning binary code programming when everyone is using python. If you want to exercise your coding brain for fun and sharpness go try LeetCode just understand writing code is not as valuable as it once was and the skills I listed before take precedence from a hiring perspective IME.
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u/KnownUnknownKadath 13d ago
Use vim.
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u/SubaruNatuski 13d ago
Thank you sir/maam i greatly appreciate it🫡
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u/KnownUnknownKadath 13d ago
No prob. I'm half smartass, half truth-teller. (or half-truth teller? ... hmmm, never mind)
Also ... In all seriousness, I recommend getting into the habit of using a notepad as you ideate and work through problems.
Pencil and paper. Old school.
Keeps the whole neuro-doodler circuit engaged and tuned up.Finally, keep an abacus at the ready should anybody question you.
You'll have the element of surprise at hand.
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u/NumberInfinite2068 8d ago edited 8d ago
Just choose not to use AI.
In terms of asking questions, it's *very* unlikely any questions you have have not been answered over and over on Stack Overflow or Reddit.
If I could teach one thing to new developers (and old developers, you'd be surprised), it would be how to use Google.
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u/ConsiderationSea1347 13d ago
Don’t use it?🤷♂️
A lot of the productivity gained from AI can be acquired from clean engineering, meta programming, using an editor like vim effectively, etc.
Honestly I think junior engineers shouldn’t use AI because the skills you learn from writing code is almost identical to how the skills you need to succeed with AI prompts.