AI Makes Coding Easy, But Does It Hinder Becoming a Good Engineer?
dayumnshit · reddit · 2026-08-07
A web development novice shared reflections on AI coding tools: while AI helped him build a working prototype in a weekend that previously would have taken six months to learn, it brought anxiety about "learning to prompt rather than understanding underlying logic."
He points out that AI easily builds the "happy path," but leaves beginners completely blind in complex scenarios like permission verification, concurrency, and database scaling. With end-to-end platforms lowering the barrier to entry, he asks senior devs: Does AI make becoming an expert harder, or just change the definition of expertise? What fundamental knowledge must juniors absolutely not skip today?
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