This is a good exercise in thinking about this subject.

Its complicatedIts complicated

This is a simplification but I think its not overly broad.

Those that use AI coding tools are all over the place. There are the vibe coder maxis. They seem to be true believers in the AI and say just trust the AI. They seem to be naive to me. Many also seem to have VERY limited knowledge or programming in general.

Then on the other extreme you have the anti-AI crowd. Those that really seem to want the tools to NOT work so they may use them but don't really come to the tool with the mindset of how can I use this, or is this useful.

The last group I would call the practical users. Those that want to get more work done. I'm in this group. Some are skeptical of the tools like me but open minded about it. Others are really bought into AI taking over everything but have actually found the edges of what it can't do and what it doesn't do well. They are practical. They figure out workarounds. They don't care as much about the how but more about the what.

What do you call them?What do you call them?

I don't really care what you call app devs honestly. I would not hire a AI prompter that doesn't know how to build something that works. I don't care if they write code from memory or if they use AI all day. Their code needs to work. It needs to be maintainable and understandable. No slop allowed.

There are a lot of lazy peopleThere are a lot of lazy people

This was the case before AI coding tools and these tools just make it easier to fake it. But the bill always comes due. Just look at all the security holes in so much software created by large companies and even open source projects. AI is like pouring gas on the fire. Experienced devs that actually care are more valuable than ever, especially when an AI can write code much faster than a human. These tools don't know anything. They are always guessing. So you always need a human that knows what they want.

The Scammers like Scam Altman Have Poisoned the Thinking on AIThe Scammers like Scam Altman Have Poisoned the Thinking on AI

AI tools are just tools. Wild complex tools but tools. They have no desires. They can't think. They make guesses based on prompts. They do not work without prompts. They aren't employees but it can be helpful to use them in that way.

Only a fool would hire a junior dev (that's how I think of AI's) and never review their code. You can do it, but you're gonna pay for it at some point.

The way I think about itThe way I think about it

AI coding tools are just tools. Almost no one reads the code of a project. I mean normal people. What matters is does it work. Crap projects have always existed. Crap devs have always existed. AI tools just make it easier and faster to write code. Good or bad.

Think about it this way. You could build a house using no power tools. No modern tools at all. You could do that. But would that mean it is better? Maybe. But the cost would be higher. Can you build a bad home with no power tools? Absolutely. Can you build it better with power tools? Nah, but faster yes. And good enough.

The bottom line is the output. It is possible to use AI prompts to write quality code. It takes planning and forethought. You need the skill of software engineering and need to understand how AI's work (the tools). If you do, you will be far more productive with the tools than without them.

Why to Avoid AI prompting?Why to Avoid AI prompting?

If one is learning to code I think prompting is a mistake. Unlike my power tools analogy there actually is massive value in learning what readable, good code looks like. Learning different paradigms like OOP or Functional have massive value. They did before this era of AI and they do now.

Why you shouldn't avoid AI coding toolsWhy you shouldn't avoid AI coding tools

If you are senior dev I think avoiding AI tools is a mistake. It is just making you less valuable and productive. But the mistake I see most devs make is that they think its magic. They bought the lie by the pitchmen that its magic. Its not. The tools are still very poor really. They aren't smart. You have to really hold their "hands". They make stuff up all the time. They get things wrong. But, if you learn to use them they can make you much more effective and productive.

I've been using them daily for over a year now and I've been able to figure out new code bases much faster than I would have without the tools. I've been able to fix bugs and make updates to messy code bases and get stuff done. I'm not working on artisan open source projects. I'm a hired gun at a large corp doing grunt work. These code bases are not amazing. They suck in many ways already. My use of these tools has not made the code bases worse, its made them better.

That's my perspective. Maybe there is a market / desire to only use artisanal apps but I don't buy it. Even in the bitcoin world people care about one thing. Does it work. Does it get the job done. Don't buy the nonsense that there are two options. Use AI and create slop garbage or write good clean code. That's nonsense. The truth is that if a dev is using AI effectively you may never know that they used it. What we see is a bunch of hacks using these tools like idiots. That's easy to do so we see a lot of it. If someone says you don't need to learn to code, you can just use the AI their are ignorant.

Its a tool. Its not magic. Its not an intelligence.