[jasonthorsness]

> Don’t use: > AI auto-complete in your editor > Agent mode or agentic tools for your educational projects

While I am not learning "coding" as a beginner anymore, I am constantly learning new frameworks, language features, algorithms etc. as is the norm in the industry, and I disagree it's bad to use AI auto-complete. Pre-AI IntelliSense-style autocomplete from Visual Studio or ReSharper makes learning new libraries and language features much easier. ReSharper for example will suggest taking advantage of new language features when you write something an older way, and many times this was my introduction to that new feature.

The new AI-based autocomplete can be even better; it demonstrates one way to do something and regardless of whether you use it or not, you can learn from it. You have to be curious enough to actually read what it is doing, but if you lack that curiosity it isn't AI's fault (before AI this was just "copy-pasting from Stack Overflow").

[GuB-42]

The advantage of traditional auto-complete over AI is that it will typically list everything that fits: all methods, all variables and constants in scope, etc... It can even fetch the documentation if available. It is great for learning because it tells you all your options without deciding for you.

AI autocomplete essentially searches stackoverflow for you and pastes the first answer without context, adjusting it to match your code. If you are learning, just do the stackoverflow search yourself, or prompt you favorite chatbot if you insist on using AI, so you can have at least some explanation about why it is done like this.

[zahlman]

What if you had an AI system that could order the exhaustive list according to its likelihood estimate?

[GuB-42]

I think it is a good idea, and that's actually how Japanese word processors have been working since the late 70s!

The way to input Japanese is to type the word phonetically using a regular qwerty keyboard. The computer then finds all writings that match and order them by likelihood.

Calling that "AI" may be a little much for 70s tech, but it is definitely machine learning, as the machine is able to match patterns and take previous choices into account.

[wagslane]

Yeah I think there's some nuance. As a relatively experienced dev I still use autocomplete when using a new language, but I think it's different when you already have a strong grasp of coding fundamentals. Learning your 3rd or fourth language when you already understand the constructs is much different than baby's first for loop

[vpShane]

100%. I enjoy AI Agentic programming because I make new things to tinker with and/or try out ideas. I'm not trying to code to push to some production, and I'm not worried about what others think of my code.

I want to be able to say I've tried and done things when speaking with highly technical people. I've been a 'programmer' since I was 10, I'm 35 now but never joined the work force as a programmer; I don't know why, but now that AI is here, the love for coding, tinkering, making system level things, trying things like WASM which may be the future of our www; these all give me that joy. I found my limitations as a programmer and excelled because I have different skillsets.

I love learning that doing something MY way is a good idea, but has been thought of and some amazing programmer already built the ground-work for it.

My Cursor AI agent even setup git for me for my projects so I can easily push with my SSH keys: do I know I can do that myself? Yes. Do I want to? no.

> ReSharper for example will suggest taking advantage of new language features when you write something an older way, and many times this was my introduction to that new feature.

That's actually news to me and sounds amazing. I started coding with C syntax when I was young. You learn habits then, it sticks with you.

I'm since enjoying python for backend things, flask for little webserver stuff and javascript for front-end things.

WASM Python ain't there yet, but I _love_ tinkering. I _love_ finding bugs. I _love_ poking and prodding at how things work. I'm almost always re-inventing the wheel with concepts but you know what? At least it's mine and I can tinker and learn.

Some of us enjoy the craft as a hobby and learning. Even within my teams some are more sophisticated tech wise than I am; to get on their level remotely requires me to tinker.

Often times, I find a solution for my problems that were the most simple; engineering minds like to overcomplicate things.

[stavros]

Very much agree. AI autocomplete is the best thing ever, because it spares you from having to read the docs but it's few enough lines that you can review and make sure it does what you intended.

It won't write big chunks, so it won't hinder your learning.

[amlib]

So you are telling me you can always properly infer what the "black boxes" the AI auto-completed for you does without reading the documentation?

I bet you are most likely just blindly trusting the AI response and moving on. Sure, the code structure might checkout and the calls it completed are sometimes fairly generic/predictable, but there will be plenty of situations where the behavior is just different enough or the black boxes are something you have no idea about what it even does and you are too lazy to check the docs and commit the code anyway.

[f311a]

It made me dumb after a few years. Personally, I started to forget how to do things manually. I'm programming in 4 languages, and I literally forgot some of the syntax. It takes much more mental energy to type things quickly without assistance.

I've disabled it.