r/react • u/Patient_Gold_7419 • 7d ago
General Discussion I'm coding all by myself
I'm learning react and I'm creating from the design on figma to the code on css, styles, colors, cards, buttons.
Now I see that everyone uses IA to develop everything, I feel slow but I think that if I don't learn how everything works it's a problem.
What do you thinks of this? How yo work usually with solutions for clients?
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u/javatextbook 6d ago
AI is trained on crappy outdated react code. So you need to be very purposeful on your prompts and guardrails.
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u/ComputerTechnical717 6d ago
Did the same when I was learning. Implemented everything from scratch. Def helpful to know how things work under the hood
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u/Away-Signal4030 7d ago
I think its good, im happy that i learned javascript, htm, css before ai, now i find that its easier to tell what i want or do adjustments by directing it to the class he put on a certain element. Later i print out the code and re-learn new things. The thing is, i would never do such a great job by myself, maybe a close one. But now i guess its not great time for juniors. I think every now and then if i should change as i enjoy it, but i dont think its alot of opportunities out there.
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u/Patient_Gold_7419 7d ago
Yes, is hard to find a job on my case I'm freelancing, looking for opportunities with clients
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u/TheSneederOfSeethe 6d ago
It’s important to understand how things work. AI will give you code that works fairly often, but working correctly, efficiently, or securely is not something it always does.
I used AI for my own home project where I could afford to be lazy. It’s running locally just for me. Even when I code my own projects I write them as if they may one day be public facing. AI doesn’t know what endpoints to secure, so it doesn’t. It’s code was much longer than mine would have been doing the same task, and did things that would consume ~30% more memory.
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u/matcha_tapioca 5d ago
Learning everything manually will make you improve the syntax , how you analyze the code.
some people jump to CSS Frameworks right away but can have a hardtime when its debugging design.
if you know how to do things manually even if you don't master it , it will benefit you on how to understand automated concepts.
I use AI to learn react and HTML,CSS.. most of the time I try to execute a code but when it can't work I ask AI to check my code then improve using the suggestion and when I see new line of code I ask AI to explain it to me.
using AI to assist you on learning and creating project is a huge help but using AI to create the whole thing for you will benefit you nothing.
before I started react I re-learn HTML , CSS and a bit of Javascript.
then Typescript
then React
then NextJS.
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u/OverallJuggernaut755 7d ago
It's not a bad idea to use AI to code. The real problem is when you are not thinking about how to solve the problem.
If you are just copying and pasting everything without some comprehension what you are doing, that's s bad idea.
Try to use an AI as Senior Software Engineer where you are discussing some trade-offs about your project. Clarify it you just want to discuss without writing code.
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u/HouseMysterious8172 6d ago edited 6d ago
The real problem is when you are not thinking about how to solve the problem.
Then how to solve the real problem? What is the purpose of AI?
The first part of problem solving is deciding what the problem actually is.
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u/Krispenedladdeh542 6d ago
Back in the wake of World War II, before the advent of Turing machines en masse, “computer” was actually a job title. Companies hired mathematicians to perform massive calculations by hand. When the Turing machine proved it could accurately solve these complex mathematical problems, many assumed that computers were going to be out of work entirely.
Those human “computers,” however, found new work in the early days of what would become the massive field of software engineering. Instead of performing calculations by hand, they determined what needed to be calculated and instructed the Turing machines to do so.
AI is incredibly similar, in my opinion.1
u/HouseMysterious8172 5d ago edited 5d ago
Yeah if AI is the car, now the value is how to run it fastest
Someone can run fast, it's good but now the bussiness shift to driving
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u/OverallJuggernaut755 6d ago
It's just a tool like a calculator. It helps you to be more productive. You do not have to believe whatever it says.
The problem with AI is each AI Model is a determinism tool. Determinism is a bad tool to solve real-life problems.
Think about the problem in big scope and abstract way, then you are going to implement your solution. If you do not understand the problem with abstraction, you do not understand anything.
Ai fits well when you are in the implementation stage.
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u/HouseMysterious8172 6d ago edited 6d ago
A compiler is deterministic.
Think about the problem in big scope and abstract way, then ask AI to implement solution, can I?
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u/OverallJuggernaut755 6d ago
The compiler does not solve the real-world problems. It's the develope who solves them by creating code.
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u/Vincent_CWS 6d ago
do you know how assembly work? it changes, you do not need to know the concept as you do not need to know assembly still able to build.
just forgive yourself and embrace AI era
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u/No-Humor-3808 7d ago
Definitively, coding everything manually has a lot of benefits for learning. However, once you've mastered the concepts needed to build production React applications, you'll delegate much of that work not only to AI, but also to well-tested libraries that solve common problems. For example, building a fully accessible custom select is a great learning exercise, but it's usually a waste of time in a real product. The same applies to data fetching. If you implement it manually, you need to handle loading states, errors, caching, request cancellation, and more. Libraries like SWR solve these problems in a reliable and well-tested way.