Why learning (code) sucks (and why you should do it anyway)

I was never academically inclined. Above average at best. But I always loved learning something new. The idea of knowing something that never even existed in my frontal lobe was, is, and will be an eternal fascination.

When I started learning to code,before chatgpt era for context, it was the most satisfying thing. The idea that some bunch of letters could just create things. Started with HTML, CSS, then Python. Built very basic things, broke them, learned. Sometimes it took an hour, sometimes weeks. But the satisfaction after? Peak dopamine.

Anyway. I yapped.

People are losing the ability to slow down and reflect. Hustle culture was already pulling everyone toward full speed, and the AI boom just made it worse. So now we're at an inflection point. Do you slow down, or run at full speed?

Like most things in software, it's a tradeoff.

Go with the flow and you build fast, maybe even monetize something. But you won't learn the interesting parts.

Resist it and you lose speed, maybe even a job 😅. But you gain knowledge and temperament.

Everyone has their own answer. The AI cultists will argue coding is dead, loudly, every day. But really? Yes. The tools will change. The languages will change. Yet learning to code teaches you something else entirely. A way of thinking. Breaking problems down, sitting with them, not panicking when things don't work. That's just useful.

So try to learn the hard way when you can. At work, use the tools, AI is not going anywhere. But put some thinking behind it. There's a difference between using a tool and just pressing enter and hoping for the best.