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by throwaway2027 3 hours ago
I'm perfectly capable of programming without internet or AI but I would admit it would take longer and in the modern world we live in it's often not economical to do so. After programming for over 20 years you start to get in that flow automatically at least you used to do so. I don't know if people starting out to program will be able to, but most experienced developers will feel this way I assume.
2 comments

> I'm perfectly capable of programming without internet

Me too, but let's be honest, I'm not talking about "Hello world!" experiments, I'm talking about developing usable software. I'm pretty sure, you won't be patching a Linux kernel driver on your own machine without googling stuff.

I've learned to code years before the Internet, but we've had it for so long, I'm honestly not sure anymore if I'm truly capable of building [real] stuff while offline. And I can't just ignore it, there's a feeling now, that with AI advancements, I may soon no longer be able to code efficiently without any AI.

It depends on the language but agreed. If I didn't have internet or AI access, I'd still be able to pull out manpages or dig into source code.

I wouldn't like it and it'd be slower, but I still understand my environment in sufficient depth to work without external info if I absolutely have to. Even with AI, once in a while I ask it to just give me some hints instead of solving something for me, so I'm forced to do the work.