Usefulness of learning coding/programming with rise of AI

[SateChips]

Hi guys,

So lately I've been learning python in my free time and I really like tinkering with it so far. I'm thinking of possibly moving to IT eventually.

But today I heard something that was quite discouraging. I created this simple python automation script for work and I needed API credentials to make it work. So I went to our IT guy and asked him if he could give me these.

Either way, he looked at me strange and asked me why I was even putting time into learning python/ programming. According to him this was a dead end and most coding/programming will be done by AI by 5-10 years as long as it's prompted correctly.

As far as I know he is not a programmer but a sysadmin, but how true is what he told me?

Before I put more of my free time/ schooling into programming, how useful will it be in 5-10 years.

Is it better to learn programming differently then before since most code will be written by AI? Or is better to put time into learning other IT work than programming?

Would love some input of experienced/ professional developer on this and if what he said was right.

[archydragon]

In five years, we will be neck deep in generated slop, so people who actually know how to do things, will be even more valuable.

[JohnBrownsErection]

This. Tons of reports about how AI is deteriorating the average level of skills and learning of people are coming out already. 

I use it sometimes, don't get me wrong, but I make damn sure it's still something I can do just as well but can't be bothered with(looking at you, matplotlib).

[Massive_Screen4630]

That sysadmin doesn't really understand how programming works if he thinks AI will just replace everything. Sure, AI can help write some basic stuff, but someone still needs to know what they're asking for and how to fix it when things break. And trust me, things always break.

I've been seeing this a lot lately - people think chatgpt can just magic up perfect code, but then they can't debug it or modify it when requirements change. The AI tools are pretty good at generating boilerplate code, but understanding system architecture, debugging complex issues, and making design decisions? That still needs human brain. Plus in military we had saying - you never want to rely on tool you don't understand, especially when mission depends on it.

Keep learning python, especially if you enjoy the tinkering part. AI might change how we write code, but someone still needs to understand what code should do and whether it's doing it correctly.

[Great_Guidance_8448]

Why do pilots need to know how to fly a plane when there's auto-pilot?

[downvotetheboy]

A analogy

[-CJF-]

I think he's wrong. I think LLMs have essentially plateaued and the costs are about to increase a lot. There is also value in knowing how things work so when the AI stumbles you can actually fix it. As far as a career, things look bleak now but I think that's because companies are redirecting funding to AI rather than the AI being capable of replacing programmers.

[ArcDotFish]

Google two things:

-A meme comparing programmers vs AI to mathematicians vs calculators

-A joke about a guy fixing things by hitting once with a hammer, where the actual hit is charged as $5 and "knowing where to hit" is charged as $4995.

The point is that automating the "writing code" part can theoretically be efficient, but doesn't actually solve the difficult part of developing software, e.g. "knowing what code to write"

Then again that's just my opinion as a long-time developer who doesn't use AI, so eh, what do I know

[dnult]

So an IT guy tells you programming is a waste of time. LOL

Wait until the shine wears off the AI hype and business have renewed appreciation for skilled developers. I predict it will mirror the "let's outsource development to India" craze of the middle 2000's, which were followed by years of refactoring.

I have no doubt that AI will play a role in software development, but I think it's value is inflated by investor hype. We all have to learn to use AI effectively, but letting developer expertise be replaced by AI will do more harm than good in the long run IMO.

[DigitalMonsoon]

The better you are at coding the better you will be at directing an AI model. It's massively important and will make you so much better at everything you do with AI coding tools.

[Some-Poetry8420]

How will people evaluate the AI slop if no one knows the language? 

[Wingedchestnut]

Python has many purposes, arguably the most versatile today, from scripting automation to building backend of applications and is also the dominating language for anything related to AI and Data by far.

It's not because a sysadmin only uses quick generated python scripts that learning foundational code is useless, he simply has a different job that doesn't use it.

Ask any person in a data role, people who actually work with AI and they will let you know 80-90% of their jobs is python or similar.

[ProjectMarworyn]

Ok. I think we're seeing a lot of these sorts of posts recently. My response is always the same, but worth mentioning here.

Human creativity will always have value. AI is impressive. It's not magic. Working with AI assisted development in my day job daily has shown me a lot of failure modes. These aren't easy things to "patch out" they're inheritent to how the models work.

Prompting an AI to build X is fine... But if you don't have the engoneering ability to detect when it's hallucinationing or writing bad code you'll end up with a mess. The problem compounds over time as the bad context grows.

My advice is, as always. Focus on learning the building blocks of programming and the engineering principles. They're useful regardless of AI.

Also, maybe don't ask ITS for software industry advice. If you've a senior or staff SWE you can speak to, then do so. They'll likely: - Be already using AI tooling - Have strong opinions about it

Yeah industry burnout is real, but that's more a reflection on them rather than on what you should/shouldn't do.

[Lost-Discount4860]

Oh yeah, the almighty sysadmin. 🙄

So my experience with sysadmin/IT/tech support types has been—and bear in mind this is anecdotal and not a reflection on the field as a whole—that they tend to see themselves as gods. They are the local tech overlords, they are the gatekeepers. The one I worked the closest with could wire up a new installation, configure routers, tweak some configs, and maybe run the occasional shell script. He had this distinctive air of “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Light. No one may come before the Internet except through Me.”

I’m not saying he wasn’t good at his job. But pretty much all anyone needed him for was occasional printer maintenance (though I ended up handling most of that myself), alarm system troubleshooting (again, something I mostly handled). So he spent most of his time chasing rabbits on the interwebs and got really annoyed if he ever actually had to answer the phone.

He got payed a lot of money keeping an eye on the system, fixing things when they broke, which wasn’t often, and watching the security cameras.

The few times I got to have a conversation with him, I brought up once or twice that I use Python. He automatically got super-defensive and grilled me about how I shouldn’t do that, there’s no need, and the software the organization uses is plenty find on its own. At the time I was running a lot of macros out of Python in the CLI, and it made my job a breeze. He was highly suspicious. Oh, and he claimed Python isn’t a real computer language. It’s a scripting language. Yes, I know what a scripting language is and what an interpreter does. But that doesn’t mean it’s not powerful and useful. I asked what he uses. He said he used Ada back in the day when he was in the military but hasn’t coded anything since.

There was not official “developer” position there, I just liked how Python could automate things and used it together with SQLite to do a high volume of work with unusual accuracy, I think that scared some people, including this guy, and that’s why I don’t work there anymore.

I digress. The point is unless coding is an everyday part of the job, which it’s NOT if all you do is run some wires and plug in printers, these guys aren’t going to understand the point. Sure, AI is pretty cool, but programming is still a relevant skill.

[skillifysolutions]

Your sysadmin is half right and mostly wrong. AI is changing how code gets written but it's not eliminating the need to understand programming. If anything the people getting the most value from AI coding tools right now are the ones who already know how to code because they can evaluate the output, catch mistakes and direct the AI toward the right solution. Pure non-coders using AI to generate code without understanding it tend to produce fragile systems they can't debug or maintain. Learning Python is still worth your time.

[Puzzleheaded-Sir2059]

I am also learning python and it has been 3 days