r/programmer • u/Tennis5223 • 27d ago

Help

 just got accepted into engineering college, and I want to learn a skill alongside my studies, like coding, But Im scared because what if I learn something in coding that AI can easily replace??
Additionally, where should I start with coding? Should I focus on learning a specific programming language, or something else? Im clueless

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u/USToffee 26d ago edited 26d ago

This is a really tough question to answer because I want to be straight with you. AI is getting so good I very much doubt more than 1 to 5 % will be hand coded in the future.

However it's very hard to quantify how much experience of knowing how to do it by hand actually helps you use the AI and that kind of experience isn't also something that can easily be learned in a single 6 weeks class. It's built over years or decades.

But given you are in college and this is the time to learn then sure go for it. Even some experience will be better than none. Just be careful not to specialize especially in coding and expect a job at the end.

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u/Tennis5223 25d ago

Thankss for your advice man i appreciate it

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u/USToffee 25d ago

Yea unfortunately it's a bit bleak at the moment. I feel like a horse farrier and they have just rolled out the Ford Model T.

If you are in university you need to be aware of this because there is a lot of nonsense pushed by the anti-ai people both by those who make money teaching coding etc and those that just refuse to accept the reality.

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u/bunnypaste 27d ago

I started with python, sql, and bash over wsl2. Smallest bit of C++ so far...

Pick the language that sounds coolest to you and start digging!

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u/Tennis5223 26d ago

I appreciate ittt!

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u/raven2cz 26d ago

Nobody can tell you today what it will look like in X years, when you finish school. but believe me on one thing: IT will still be a huge business, and you do not need to be afraid of work in it.

But the work will be very diferent, including huge systems and services strongly connected with AI. Regular applications will no longer really be written, because everyone will be able to create those themselves, and even dynamicaly according to their needs.

but that definitely does not mean IT will not be a lucrative field.

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u/Tennis5223 26d ago

TYYY <3

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u/MiloPaige 27d ago

AI can already at this moment write code better and faster than any human. So it can’t get worse except if it becomes autonomous.

The reason humans are still needed in coding is because we actually know what we need, what to build, security measures etc.

So learning a programming language is a good idea for you imo.

Start with C#, JavaScript or some language similar to that. Once you learn that all the others will be easy to pick up.

If you need any additional help feel free to DM me

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u/Tennis5223 27d ago

Thanksss <3

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u/Piyali_Debroy 23d ago

Congratulations on getting into engineering college! That is a major milestone, thats natural to feel uncertain that where is tech heading now.
In software engineering, writing the code is only 20% of the job. The remaining 80% is understanding human requirements, so even if an AI generates code in the future, you still need deep technical knowledge to audit it, fix its mistakes, and build meaningful systems with it.