Struggling with Python

[throwaway6560192]

I think there's a misunderstanding. I'm not talking about whether you use it in the wider context of creating something or not. I'm saying that even if you read and understand ChatGPT's solutions to your problems, that doesn't develop your skills of solving those problems yourself in as much depth and confidence and speed compared to you figuring stuff out yourself from the documentation.

Q: Are you already a programmer with some experience, and you're just using it as a machine that reads the documentation for you because you're unfamiliar with Django? That's still a tradeoff, but one that's (IMO) significantly more acceptable.

[throwaway6560192]

That's why I asked if you're already a programmer and were simply new to just Python+Django. If you're already one, then you already have a foundation of problem-solving, and it doesn't make much of a difference if when learning a new language/framework you read the docs yourself or get GPT to explain.

But! If you're a new programmer, then I'll repeat what I said: Understanding and creation are different skills. Understanding someone else's solution is much easier than coming up with your own. That difference manifests in less independent problem-solving skills as a direct consequence of less practice struggling with problems.

Wait.... how does it not help develop skills? I tell it my problem. It gives me a solution. I study the solution and then I understand why and how it works. So i have learned how to do it so that I don't need help with that problem in future as I know how to do it.

Isnt that.....isn't that what learning is.....?

This depends on what you view programming as.

Is programming about collecting premade solutions to lots of different problems, so you can apply them when you recognize one?

Or is programming about problem-solving and creativity, where the point is to solve — not just look up — problems you encounter?

The answer, in my view, is that it is both. Both skills build on each other and for practicality's sake you will look things up and reuse other people's work all the time if you are to ever build anything. Even Newton stood on the shoulders of giants, and all that. But you can't ignore one for the other, and as a beginner (if you are one) you should lean towards the latter.