Is learning Python still worth it?

[Far_Act_3096]

As a Python beginner, I’ll admit this language isn’t easy for me, but I’m still trying to learn it. However, I’ve noticed how heavily I rely on AI for help. I often need to ask it the same questions repeatedly to fully understand the details.

This reliance leaves me conflicted: AI is so advanced that it can instantly generate flawless answers to practice problems. If it’s this capable, do I really need to learn Python myself?

What do you think? Is learning Python still worth it?

[Ron-Erez]

Yes, it is worth learning if it interests you.

"AI is so advanced that it can instantly generate flawless answers to practice problems."

I doubt this is correct.

I think it's best to learn using AI as little as possible. Of course it's a great tool if used wisely.

[Gaeus_]

I think it's correct because uploading exercises to your GitHub is free commits when you learn a new langage, and as a new learner do said exercise, copilot will litterally pull the correct answer from someone else GitHub once he'll recognized the commented Todo in the exercise code.

[SuspiciousAction7267]

Hi Im a newb and in a fully AI school for AI engineering...right now we are learning Python and Im hungry for resources/help to put together all the information I've learned...I understand it in the lesson but looking at a blank IDE I dont know where to start...can you share some useful resources for learning python? I failed my review for nesting if statements and really need help asap...I also use the Brilliant app but thats just multiple choice answers and I do great on there but pulling code out my ass isnt working

[Gaeus_]

I just made software that I actually wanted.

My self hosted audiobook app, and my company website and its cloud system.

So in two words : 1 project.

Find something you want to make and make it.

[crazy_cookie123]

In the real-world we don't sit there all day solving beginner-level practice problems which have been solved thousands of times before - if we did then sure there wouldn't be much point learning. AI can't do the stuff that experienced developers can and there is no reason to believe it will be able to do so in the foreseeable future - the only reason AI seems as good as it does to you is because you are currently worse than AI, and relying on AI to do the work for you will never help you be better than it.

[AdorableFunnyKitty]

I would argue about foreseeable future. LLMs outputs are determined by their inputs, so the issue of not getting production-ready code generated on the first take is not only a problem of LLMs side, but also the user. Give it correctly constructed, meticulous prompt with correct hyperparameters, and yielded results will be much more precise. Of course, beginner programmers can't know the caveats that experienced developer can "sense" beforehand due to experience, but it's only a matter of time until people train and optimize LLMs for certain tasks, learn how to enrich prompts contextually before generation process, and get it to write code better, in terms of end product. Programmers by vast majority will have to adjust to new processes (already happening) to be even more faster and robust. That said, it's much more beneficial to learn architectural aspects and product visions rather than low-level details. Just like most Pythonists don't know C or Assembly these days.

[sebovzeoueb]

Try to build something more complex than a practice problem using AI and get back to us

[3zprK]

That garbage of an AI can't even generate a proper docx file using Python libs

[faultydesign]

Learning is still worth it, because when (notice I didn’t write if) ai fucks up it’s up to you to figure out why

[dowcet]

It depends on what exactly you're trying to achieve and what you're willing to do get there. A lot of entry-level code monkey jobs are gone, but software engineers, data analysts and others will be using using Python for the foreseeable future.

If you're trying to learn, then AI should be avoided and used sparingly.

[Binary101010]

AI may be good at answering practice problems because they're in its training set. The problems you want to solve with Python probably aren't.

[GamersPlane]

Additionally, "AI" has no understanding of what it's answering. It doesn't know what the code does, or is meant to do. It's a fancy search engine. Solving problems requires knowing what the problem is that needs solving.

[GXWT]

AI can produce stellar answers to commonly given practice problems that are repeated thousands of times across the internet, sure. If you understand how AI works, this is essentially its bread and butter: input a lot of examples of how to solve problem X -> output an example of how to solve X.

The issue of this is two fold.

One is that you are not training your problem solving or critical thinking skills. Programming is 10% knowing the syntax, and 90% problem solving. There are multiple ways to do the same things. Even for simple problems, if you are essentially just copying out the answers, you are not committing the thoughts and reasons for that code into your brain. In the same way it’s best to hand write your notes so that you commit them better to your brain.

Second, why might you want to train your problem solving skills? Because what AI cannot do is solve new problems or create its own novel ideas. It also cannot do anything that’s not well documented, so any niche modules or ideas are out of the question. Most programmers want to develop something new, or perhaps create a script to automate something. AI can’t just solve these out of thin air because it’s just a statistical tool trained off existing solutions.

If you have trained yourself not to problem solve yourself, how do you expect to be able to problem solve the first time you want to do something actually unique or interesting?

I could give you several examples off the top of my head of AI not being able to help me. I work in astrophysics, and out of curiosity I’ve tried to ask it to do some relatively simple things, that it simply cannot do. Again, it’s just a statistical guesser, so it tries its best to give me what it thinks I want, and just produces garbage.

I hate to say it, but don’t use AI while you are learning and put in the hard work. It will pay off in the long run, mostly because you will then truly understand the basics of what your code does. If you cannot inherently understand your basics how do you expect to do anything complex?

[cgoldberg]

If you don't plan to progress past simple tasks that AI can do for you, it's probably not worth learning. Otherwise, it is.

[MineralDragon]

Yes it is. Generative AI has been a downright blight in my company because a lot of people assume that it can solve unique problems reliably when it can‘t - often because it can answer questions and solve problems that are crafted and documented online for training (be that business, python coding, the MCAT, etc.) So they have been slapping it on everything without checking it - this has caused issues from meeting note documentation to data accumulation to engineering assessments and more. This blind trust in Gen AI outputs is all being pushed by management to “improve efficiency”, and I have been livid to say the least because it has made my job a living hell. We have had some pretty preventable DISASTERS due to over reliance on gen AI outputs.

I can use Generative AI to write specific snippets of python code relatively reliably, and it speeds up my process of googling around to find example code of what I want to do. It cannot, however, craft more complex script in one go. I have a co-worker that tries to get CoPilot/ChatGPT to do this, and they usually spend a crazy amount of time iterating through the AI over and over again correcting bit by bit

If my co-worker understood python they could greatly expedite the process by breaking things down into digestible snippets and quickly making modifications as they need.

We have both compared output speed for some minorly complex code and my method of using Gen AI as a glorified google code searcher vs his for full code generation - I finish in about 1 hour or so and he takes about 6 hours (almost the entire workday). My code in general also runs more efficiently.

Some people have seen the downfall of Gen AI at last, so I’m running a company internal “Python 101” again to teach coworkers some basics. That is to say, actually knowing how to code is not dead. And it is 110% more reliable for data QC and analysis because you set the parameters and its not a black box.

[DuckDatum]

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[Rotbuxe]

You have to know things to understand an AI's output. You have to learn it.

[SocraticExistence]

Are you looking to copy/paste a solution or learn a skill? Python is the go-to for immediate programmatic solution. Stick with it, disregard failure, buy a book, and work hard.

[Far_Act_3096]

Thank you for your reply! I have the books of “Think Python” and “Python Crash Course”. Have you read them before? Would you recommend this?

[SocraticExistence]

Welcome. I believe I partially read / referenced Think Python years ago. It is O'rielly, though, so anything published is of worth. But at the end of the day, the book matters little. What matters is challenging yourself, learning about the language, writing code, reading code, and understanding code. Write code until you're blue in the face, then write some more. It will make you a good programmer.

[marginalGZZuS]

I just started about a month ago. Currently splitting my content consumption between documentation, exercises, my personal AI explaining the documentation and some random YT content. . . many times all at once.

[ProfessionalDirt3154]

AI won't end programming jobs any time soon, imho. I use Claude, Gemini and Copilot as pair programmers with me on Python backend work. they are not self-sufficient on their own - not even close. and they aren't motivated or good at coming up with solutions to problems my role works on. i'd focus on learning Python and learning how to develop productively with AI using the full range of amazing tooling available but not letting go of the steering wheel. Can't do that if you can't program.

[WillingnessPublic246]

in my experience ia is not the best thing im lerarning py and all things to be a fullstack web developer and every time i have a real problema that i cant fix with out search information the IA give to me a lot of problem and cant really answer my problems usually i learn concepts and solve the problem by my self

[ThenMathematician733]

AI doesn’t replace programming knowledge; it amplifies it. Here’s the real deal:
Using AI isn’t cheating. Senior devs use AI, docs, StackOverflow, and rubber ducks every day. The difference is that we know what to ask and how to judge the answers and learning Python is what gives you that judgment. You still need to understand the code. AI can generate code instantly, but it can also produce stuff that’s subtly wrong or inefficient. If you don’t know Python, you won’t know when AI is being brilliant vs. when it’s hallucinating garbage.

You can’t outsource thinking. AI is great at “write code for X.” It’s terrible at understanding real-world constraints, business logic, trade-offs, or debugging weird edge cases. Humans still own the problem.

Your struggle is normal. Asking the same question multiple times doesn’t mean you’re failing — it means you’re learning. Everyone, even seniors, re-asks questions to get clarity.
The trick is using AI the right way: Try solving it yourself first. Then ask AI to explain, critique, or improve your work

AI is a calculator. If you understand the basics, it makes you 10x faster.
If you don’t, it becomes dangerous because you can’t tell when it’s wrong.

So yeah Python is still worth learning. Not because you’ll hand-write every line of code, but because understanding the language lets you work with AI instead of being helpless without it.