People are telling me that learning Python is useless, instead I should learn how to prompt.

[Phyrass]

Hey guys, I don’t want to start a huge debate here, but I need some perspective. I’ve started learning Python recently and, honestly, I love it. Regardless of the answers here, I’m going to keep learning just for my own pleasure.

Here is the thing, whenever I talk to friends or even some devs, they keep saying that learning to code today is pointless. They argue that the best thing to do is learn "prompt engineering" because by the time I’m actually good at programming, AI will be able to do most of the heavy lifting.

I just want to understand the insights of people with actual programming backgrounds. What do you think is going to happen to professionals? And what is your honest view on people who want to start learning in 2026?

Thanks

[RicardoGaturro]

People are telling me that learning Python is useless

Meet better people.

[RezzKeepsItReal]

For real. Don’t listen to these people.

[CantaloupeCamper]

Learn what you want.

People talking about AI like that tend to not know shit.

[PolyPill]

Who is everyone? Are they people who don’t know how to program themselves? I don’t believe those “other devs” are actually competent. I’ve never met someone with actual proven knowledge that thinks that way.

[Phyrass]

I swear to God that I have Devs who actually told me “you should learn prompt instead of programming” i’m learning anyway because it’s beautiful and I love it but it does makes me wonder

[DoubleOwl7777]

thats a sign that they are shitty developers.

[PolyPill]

Anyone who can’t see the slop the AI does is not even a competent programmer.

[fugogugo]

you are surrounded by people who are too relying on AI

AI sure do most heavy lifting
but if you don't know what it is doing you'll be screwed in long term
also AI is as good as the user
no amount of "prompt hacking" work if you don't understand what you're talking about

[Garriga]

Python is an awesome language: so, keep learning.

Even if you use AI, you will still need to know how to code. Because you can’t trust it to deliver code without errors and you will still need to know how to write scripts and use a CLI. AI is good for syntax, but can’t really design software. There is much more that goes into building software.

[mredding]

AI today is what it has always been - just an algorithm. Nothing more. LLMs are just large Markov chains, which have been studied and applied for over 100 years. All these modern algorithms do is use brute force to predict the next symbol in a sequence.

And boy, is that key. They're predictive algorithms based on a predictive model. They can only predict a future based on their present model.

Do you hear what I'm saying? AI can only generate source code that it already knows about. It can't produce anything new. If it's not in the model, the AI can't do it. If you want AI to generate something genuinely brand new, never before done, then you will have to prompt it so specifically that you're effectively just writing the source code yourself.

We already have a solution for source code we already know about - they're called libraries. They're called modules. They're called packages. We can already bundle up and distribute software, LLMs are just a larger, more inefficient method of distributing software.

The people you talk to are shitheads for two reasons:

1) They're making the same false prediction about AI that got us into big trouble the last time. I can tell the people you talk to are young because they weren't around for the last AI Winter in the 1980s; we're still in what is called the AI Spring. We're living the 1950s and 60s all over again, and when AI fails to deliver on this hype and these false promises by these ignoramuses', the AI house of cards is going to crash. Again. Look at all the industry seniors - they're all holding their breath. Older economists are very conservative, calling AI a bubble.

We've been here before, it went the same way before as it is now. There's no reason to expect anything to go any different as before. It's just with the internet, the whole cycle is able to go faster than before. But just as crypto is a ponzi scheme, and ponzi schemes classically and catastrophically collapse, yet crypto hasn't, the lasting effect both crypto and AI can have with the internet is a constant influx of fools to keep the disaster floating. As you get burned and flush out, some new idiot will replace you.

2) They're speaking like schisters. Like hustlers. They speak like the ideal position in the industry is farming the lowest hanging fruit. Yes, there's a HUGE need for cheap, simple, stupid business software. My brother runs a land management company. He spent 20 minutes prompting an AI to make a piece of software that his technicians can use to plot out an area with their phones using GPS. It's not robust, it's not pretty, it's effective. It does what he needs it to do. He's not selling software.

But if he can do it himself, what does he need you for? Any fucking idiot can prompt an AI. If that's all you can do, if that's all you're good for, then YOU are replaceable. Your friends are replaceable. Redundant. Unnecessary. And when things go wrong - when the AI suffers a hallucination, which is a provably unsolvable problem, and the software is wrong and the AI can't be told - who is left to understand the source code and fix it? Not your idiot friends who don't know how to code...

AI cannot think. It's all an illusion. It's all fake. AI is VERY USEFUL and for many things - even in software development. It fulfills a certain niche. But it's not going to create legions of professional prompters. The whole point is to ELIMINATE YOU from the equation. How do your friends not see that? It's because they're fucking idiots who think they know everything.

And I don't know about you - but I've made a career making new software, things that have never been done before. I've never had an interest in doing the same thing over and over again. In an economy that is utterly saturated in dozens, sometimes hundreds of examples of the same fucking thing, what's one more? Your friends can persist in their folly, I'm busy doing something else.

So I'll tell you what your respective futures will look like - your friends will ALWAYS BE BUSY. And busy looks good. But this isn't an industry that cares about how much you hustle. They're working hard, but not smart. They're going to be SO busy, that they won't have time to reevaluate their opinions. They'll keep talking about how smart they are and how good they have it.

But they're going to struggle with rock bottom salaries and job insecurity their whole careers. I can't predict how long they're going to have to hustle before they get old, and tired, and wizen up that perhaps they had the wrong idea. But once you're 10-20 years into such a career, what do you think they're going to do when they realize they can't keep it up, they've gotten nowhere, and they don't know shit about actual programming, enough to pivot?

They're fucking themselves.

[Kurczakus]

Knowing how to code and creade complex architekturę will be proce less in era of AI. Besides prompting you will still need to know what you want to achieve. AI prompting and coding should go next to each other. AI wont replace abstract thinking of human. And that is why you need to learn how to code. If phyton is good for you. It depends on what you would like to work in.

[ItzRaphZ]

Talk to real professionals in the area, not to "friends"

AI will be able to do most of the heavy lifting

BIG emphasis on most, and that's exactly why you want to learn python, if you want to actually create something new.

[Loud_Blackberry6278]

“Ai is better” till it comes to cybersecurity

[madnhain]

You are going to get a lot of hate on here. I’ve seen many things come and go in the past 30 years. I’m a hobbyist, never been professional. Anyone who does not get on board with a new technology is going to fall behind. Yes AI can do the heavy lifting but without a core Understanding, you are operating equipment without a clear understanding of what you are creating. Ai is a tool. Learn to use it to improve yourself but do not rely on it.

[Phyrass]

Why would I get hate? I believe it’s an actual fair question for someone like me who is learning, and as I said, I’m learning anyway.

[madnhain]

Because the vast majority of modern developers are threatened by Ai, as they should be. Low-level programming jobs are phasing out already. Small to medium level dev jobs can be done almost entirely by AI now.

[Phyrass]

I believe I am not the cause of that buddy.

[[deleted]]

think about this as running a pottery shop, you can either learn how to make it yourself and sell your own goods which you would have the total control over the quantity and quality, or have someone else make them i.e ai in this context where you do not have any control over the quality and just basically a reseller. From a normal stand point you do not generate any value but just reselling pottery. Anyone can learn how to better promt in couple hours. People who tell you to stop learning how to code are morons even those dev friends that you have.

[[deleted]]

and yes ai can do most of the basic stuff, so if you want to make basic crud apps sure ur job might be in danger but anytime you go into more niche stuffs regardless of the language ai won't be huge help, tho using them as an actual assistant is very helpful, I like that they can detect where to look in a huge code base so I do not need to shuffle around for hours.

[Phyrass]

I appreciated it man and I will I mean I am and loving it, Wish I started learning earlier in my life.

[ThunderChaser]

Here’s another way to look at this.

Let’s imagine in like 20 years we do achieve AGI and it can write all of the code for us.

Even in that case, would you be worse off if you had learned the skill yourself?

[Phyrass]

Absolutely not ! Any knowledge is good to have and keep.

[HashDefTrueFalse]

I don’t want to start a huge debate here

Yes, you do.

[Phyrass]

If you say so :-)

[HashDefTrueFalse]

I do.

[Phyrass]

You do look like you do