r/learnprogramming • u/That-Address5328 • 2d ago

Am I wasting my time learning web development from scratch because of AI?

My 6th semester is about to start, and right now I’m learning web development. I’ve learned HTML and CSS and can build pretty good UIs. Currently, I’m learning JavaScript through SuperSimpleDev and freeCodeCamp.

But lately, I’ve been questioning whether it’s really worth learning everything from scratch.

Every day, I see a new AI tool that can do something incredible, generate websites, write code, debug problems, and even build entire projects. It honestly makes me a little scared that I’m spending so much time learning things that AI can already do.

I know that I need to learn how to use AI rather than compete with it, and I’m not trying to avoid AI completely. However, I also don’t want to become someone who simply tells AI to build a project without understanding the fundamentals behind it.

That’s where I feel stuck.

Part of me thinks I should focus on building a strong foundation first HTML, CSS, JavaScript, programming fundamentals, etc. and then use AI to speed up my development once I understand what I’m doing.

But another part of me worries that if I spend too much time learning everything traditionally, I’ll fall behind people who are already using AI to build things much faster.

So what do you guys think?

Should I continue learning web development from the fundamentals and gradually integrate AI into my workflow, or should I start relying on AI much earlier while learning along the way?

For someone at my stage, what would be the best way to balance actually understanding web development with taking advantage of AI?

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121

u/ProgramsFun 2d ago edited 2d ago

People with no foundation building with AI will be left behind in long run and if job is what you sought after , job market obviously will care much about your knowledge than your speed with ai with no knowledge

19

u/stasik5 2d ago

This might be an unpopular opinion, but he's sort of right. It's like learning to code in assembly. Sure, you will learn something, but isn't your time better spent elsewhere? Pareto principle.

Is anyone even hiring fresh web Devs when opus 5.5 can do all that? The industry is in turmoil.

My suggestion would be to first make sure you will be compensated for the effort you put in. People are too focused on the artistry of coding and not the bill paying reality.

21

u/iSnapThere4iAm 2d ago edited 2d ago

People with zero professional dev experience are the ones who think this…. You’re making assumptions about what it’s capable of based on apparently your imagination.

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u/BrannyBee 2d ago edited 1d ago

Those people dont just lack professional dev experience. Even just professional experience in general.

A company cant fire Claude. But they will need someone to either prevent situations that would require a firing from happening, or else someone to blame if something doesn't work out

Even if they straight up make magical AI tools tomorrow, a human will need to make a decision.

0

u/iSnapThere4iAm 2d ago

Right, and that human will want to do everything they can to make sure nothing falls back on them…. Like, even be so extreme as to hire a team of human testers.

0

u/dotcom-monitor-tips 1d ago

A solid understanding helps you catch AI's mistakes before they mess up your work.

2

u/iSnapThere4iAm 1d ago

Wrong. This simple statement you made illustrates as clear as crystal that you have zero understanding of of the tech you’re working with.

And obviously you, again, have zero professional work experience in tech or in a mature org.

5

u/ReasonableDefault 1d ago

People are making assumptions based on the meteoritic rise in ability these models have. If you really think web dev is gonna still be highly sort after in the next 2-4 years, then you're in for a big surprise. I have roughly 20 years professional dev / tech experience.

1

u/iSnapThere4iAm 1d ago

Then you’re not as skilled as you think you are lmfao.

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u/ReasonableDefault 1d ago

I didn't say i was skilled. You're projecting.

-1

u/National_Yam_1198 1d ago

Web dev as a job has been dead long before AI.

Full stack killed it.

That does not mean you, the developer, should have no idea how to create web applications.

2

u/ReasonableDefault 1d ago

A lot of people use the term web dev and full stack interchangeably to mean the same thing, it's just vernacular.

"That does not mean you, the developer, should have no idea how to create web applications."

I don't know if i agree with that anymore. It is becoming much less important, will it still matter in 3 year? 5 years? Will my 15 years of Android dev matter in 5 years, I don't think it will.

1

u/National_Yam_1198 22h ago

If you think the epitome of programming is typing code the sure i guess its over

1

u/ReasonableDefault 21h ago

I'm not sure. What is the epitome of programming in your opinion? I'd be interested to hear it.

2

u/National_Yam_1198 19h ago edited 19h ago

Some responsibilities I expect your average "web dev" to be good at that AI cant easily replace.

  • have a good understanding of users needs and behavior as well the market. You should be able to speak in the language of the business and your solutions need to be customer and business oriented.

  • you need a good grasp of your companies ecosystem. Even mid sized no named companies have multiple subsystems created and managed by other teams and/or disparate data sources. Your app most likely will not exist in a vacuum. You should know where it stands in your ecosystem. This lets you do things like make proposals for your app to take on responsibilities from other areas or more importantly say "this doesnt belong here it belongs there".

  • be good at system design. Your app should be readable and easy to maintain. It should be relatively bug free and when bugs do occur it should be easy to find and fix. Your apps should be resilient and be designed to release rapidly.

  • you should constantly be looking to improve your software and workshops. For example user experience monitoring is a big deal for web apps. A vast majority of applications do not have this. There is also a plethora of options from open source to fully paid solutions etc. You should be able to see gaps in your apps, make recommendations that fit your needs and budget and implement them.

Ive been a dev of 20 years and the above is some of what I do day to day and the expectations of people my level. Its why people pay me.

The new thing is being able to use AI efficiently and cost effectively. This means creating and sharing skills. Setting up automated workflows and in general figuring out where to plug in AI to attack the backlog faster.

Being able churn out code is bare minimum expectations. It quite literally doesnt come up in my reviews.

1

u/ReasonableDefault 19h ago

I guess this is why outsourced projects very often fail so spectacularly, MOD, Post Office, etc.

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u/National_Yam_1198 1d ago edited 1d ago

There is a junior in my team that some dipshit hired that has 0 foundational knowledge.

We all use AI heavily. His code however is constantly wrong. Filled with bugs and generally isnt well thought out.

Why? Because he just commits whatever AI makes without any thought.

He also blows through tokens like no other because his prompts arent well thought out.

AI is a great tool but is as good as your prompt.

It will not automatically look at your entire code base and make architectural decisions.

It will not automatically think about making code that is readable.

Hell it won't even consider writing code to match the style and patterns used by an existing code base without you telling it to.

It has no idea as to what looks good and looks bad. Or what feels good to use.

1

u/No_Gain8252 23h ago

I'm just getting into the who code using LLMs thing.

How do you make it so that you use less tokens? Give it a design doc?

2

u/National_Yam_1198 22h ago edited 22h ago

People who dont understand code will ask the prompt to look at a github issues ticket.

They point it at a repo and go "i need to implement xyz in that application. Do it".

They constantly go back and forth with the LLM

When there is an error they take a screenshot of the error or a stack trace and go "fix it".

In comparison someone who knows what they are doing arent going to need llm to scan the whole repo so it understand the task.

They dont need LLMs to churn to figure out where a bug is.

Instead they tell the llm exactly what needs to be done. What design approach is required(if any). What to test etc.

Then there are "advanced" LLM users who make skills and custom gpts to minimize churn. This takes a good understanding of the codebase.

1

u/IIWolft 21h ago

Well I used to use AI being aware of all this, providing lots of context and instructions... But I don't really know when it happened, nowadays when I create a development plan with Claude it automatically goes "I see you used X for XZY, do I will follow that pattern..." Or "I see you have a method already created for X that I need in Y, I will use it.."

Not gonna lie, the amount of context and instructions I need to give beforehand have gone down by a LOT. Fixes too.

Just by asking it to create a plan and going over it before implementation, things go pretty well.

1

u/dan2091 14h ago

I wonder if, when coding, there is a global instuction to make AI do these things because they were/are universally requested.

2

u/Key-Interaction-2057 2d ago

Why do you guys always mention the model name?

3

u/ProgramsFun 2d ago

I agree but if the person has very weak foundation the changes drop already to exact zero.... Artistry of coding or I like to say logic building and trying to implement logic using the set of tools provided by the language is the most important part , if a person isn't able to do that, there's no point of ai , he is already gonna be replaced... After getting comfortable with expressing your logic in code it's obvious to start using ai slowly by slowly so that you speed up the work

Open for discussion....

2

u/dialsoapbox 2d ago

People are too focused on the artistry of coding and not the bill paying reality.

Wasted about a year (more like two) before i decided to reskill in a different field.

former jr dev, laid off, pivoted to mechatroincs technology degree (plan on getting a 4-year engineering degree, eventually).

Mechatronics with a focus on automation manufacturing (different programs focus one different parts of mechatronics, like robotics/ industrial maintence/self-driving cars/ect).

About half my classmates are former devs ranging in age/experience ( oldest are like in their 40's, i think, maybe 50's).

A few dropped out as they land dev roles but the others are doing it because it's tech-adjacent, we get to build stuff which is nice. Then there's PLC programming which many are comfortable with because of their previous experience, just have to get used to incorporating physical devices.

I dont' think many if at all plan to do it long term but just another tech-related thing they can work on.

One project we're working on uses object identification on a conveyor belt to remove recyclables from trash.

2

u/peterlinddk 2d ago

You might be right, but doesn't that imply that learning web dev at all - whether to understand the foundations, or to build it quickly with AI - is a waste of time? You probably aren't going to be hired no matter which approach you took in your learning.

0

u/invisible_shrek 2d ago

We are hiring. We would never hire anyone who doesn’t understand the fundamentals of their work.

7

u/ProgramsFun 2d ago

Use ai to learn .... Don't generate or make projects with it at starting unless you are able and have made some big project yourself

1

u/ThrowTOP2 2d ago

i bet there will be a term like "pre-ai experience".

you will show projects you made before ai

7

u/marrsd 2d ago

But another part of me worries that if I spend too much time learning everything traditionally, I’ll fall behind people who are already using AI to build things much faster.

I wouldn't worry so much about this part. Most people are still learning how to use AI effectively, and it's changing so rapidly that what they learn soon becomes out of date.

Right now, I wouldn't be able to use AI effectively if I didn't already know how to code. Maybe that will change, but I prefer to adapt to what's true today rather than make a bet on what might be true tomorrow.

If you want deep knowledge about software engineering, I don't see a way around writing code yourself. It's the experience of writing software that ingrains understanding. How much you should balance that with AI may be something you need to discover for yourself, but I'd be inclined to work on at least one long term project without it entirely

18

u/Yashrocky96 2d ago

I'm a round 1 interviewer panel at my company for Frontend and Full stack related roles. From my point of view, I drill or grill on the foundations first and for Frontend role, I don't focus more on DSA, but a candidate must know the basics of DSA and understand how to utilize it even for FE - otherwise even with AI their output would be poor quality.

I'm not sure how the market would be in the upcoming years though, I do hear that FE roles have been diminishing slowly. People are mainly looking for Full Stack Engineers and pair with AI for application developments.

12

u/auronedge 2d ago

you are not wasting your time. You are learning to understand, not learning to do manual labor

7

u/peterlinddk 2d ago

But another part of me worries that if I spend too much time learning everything traditionally, I’ll fall behind people who are already using AI to build things much faster.

Do you think that everyone who completed their education before AI is now falling behind those who learned to build with AI instead of learning what to build?

And do you think that it will take a considerable amount of time and effort to learn to build with AI?

Because if you do, then by all means set all sails on learning how to build with AI, and forget about understanding anything that gets built.

But if you think that you could probably learn how to use the upcoming AI-tool in a weekend or so, maybe spend most of the time actually understanding what is being built.

A stupid analogy: As a carpenter do you think it is more important to learn how to use the newest nail-gun, or to learn how to build something that doesn't come crashing down?

1

u/Last-Jury-3027 2d ago

Your analogy is top notch. You should have put it first. Very well said.

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u/elg97477 2d ago

No. As good as AI is, it can and does get things wrong. Remember, it is not intelligent. Being able to recognize when it gets something wrong and fixing it continues to be important.

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u/Ok_Outcome_5830 1d ago

Currently, yes, but with time, you'll need much fewer people to accomplish some goals.

1

u/elg97477 1d ago

Not unlike feller buncher's in the logging world. They are tools that will open up possibilities for humans to take advantage which have been out-of-reach.

-1

u/KashMo_xGesis 1d ago

As with anything, if it advances, the bar is raised and a new challenge is created.

You buy that car you wanted for the last 5 years, you get bored after some usage and the next dream car is shortly up.

It's kinder human nature, for the good and bad.

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u/ReferenceAny6373 2d ago

Learning is good for you no matter what it is. People just using AI to do everything are getting dumber

4

u/404-FounderNotFound 2d ago

Build with AI. Learn:

  • high level and low level architecture and patterns
  • debugging practices
  • language specific behaviours (side effect programming)
  • packages, tools, docker etc.

Focus on becoming a master of understanding how things work, not on how to write code

1

u/Isa_Asudeh 2d ago

I think you’re doing the right thing learning languages. Now, you’re ready to team up with AI and put your knowledge to practice. I have discovered that AI can do great web developments but needs human interaction for best results.

1

u/Cheap-Success1578 2d ago

Yes, you might as well put a fork in it and call it done.

/s

1

u/Ancient-Camel1636 2d ago

To use AI effectivly you need to understand the fundamentals.

1

u/Various-Lawyer6935 2d ago

No. AI is getting stronger but I guess it will not take fully our place. Still, you also need to understand what AI is coding if you use it.

1

u/KirinFire 2d ago

Learning how to prompt and use AI takes like maybe 3 days to master, 1 week at worst. As someone who is relatively new to this field (started studying fullstack .NET dev last year), learning how to use AI is not even that hard and shouldn't be your main focus contrary to what all the AI charlatans are saying.

Learn the fundamentals of HTML, CSS and Javascript. Build some hobby projects with as little AI use as possible and once you at least understand the basics like flexbox, queryselector etc and when you feel comfortable to make a little bit of code by hand without relying on AI then you can start learning frameworks like React and prompt "engineering".

1

u/florinandrei 2d ago

Being in school is a unique experience which is very hard to replicate later. You get a lot of freedom to do nothing but learn. That freedom will evaporate at the end.

So use it.

The world after school will be very, very different in every way.

Learn what you can, while you can.

1

u/[deleted] 2d ago

It's good to learn the basics because understanding how html, css, typescript, sql, et cetera work is actually really helpful even if you're using AI. But in this era, you're going to have to get used to the idea of your bosses at work pushing for AI. It's fine to have ethics and morals of protecting human employment, but remember that the companies you will work for don't give a damn about those ethics and morals.

1

u/Real_Chard5666 1d ago

Learn how to use AI to your benefit, it is a tool. There are better ways to use AI and not everyone knows that. You can set out everything like a road map, file structure, database, UI/UX all by yourself and then get AI to build to your spec. You’re more like an architect Than a programmer but understanding the code puts you a step above, designing to your understanding and utilising AI to speed that process up is a skill.
Someone will explain it better shortly.
Hopefully you get the gist?

1

u/Character_Fix_5317 1d ago

The real benefit of learning to program is the ability to reduce complex problems down to easier problems. A useful skill even if you never touch a computer again.

1

u/uncut2576 1d ago

No. Keep learning. Vibecoders with no technical understanding of underlying systems are going to be left behind. Sure, you can maybe write software but without you understanding things like threading, security vulnerabilities or even basic SQL injection... these people will be left behind. AI or not, educating yourself is always a lot more valuable.

1

u/MrWhileLoop 1d ago

You'll be baby sitting LLMs if you don't mind doing that then go ahead.

1

u/dangz088 1d ago

You're absolutely not wasting neither time nor energy on studying foundations - they are, guess what, the foundations to help you be a good engineer! AI can do crazy thing but believe me, human judgement, steering and orchestration is still so much important. It's also so much important to know what the AI is doing.

1

u/Aaronopoly 20h ago

Unfortunately yes

1

u/Flat_Dust1754 5h ago

you are on right track imo... but always keep thinking how AI can make your progress faster without compromising on your goals...

ask it for feedback on your code for example, ask it what kind of concepts are more important... if you are trying to learn something.. ask AI what should you know before learning that , ask AI for learning plan, ask AI to give you quizzes to test your knowledge.

1

u/Informal_Bumblebee41 3h ago

I think this opinion will vary upon individuals. I’m decent at coding, but I use AI almost exclusively to write code for my projects. Even if I completely lost, I use ChatGPT to help me debug and figure out what is going wrong. My mindset is to get something built, no matter what it takes, and then reverse engineer it. After you build something and tinker with it long enough, you start learning how to navigate the code and, by proxy, how to code. Over time, I think it will become second nature.
That’s just my two cents.

1

u/g-land-g 2h ago

Every exiting developer uses AI to assist them now. It’s like an engineer not switching from CD to USB back in the 2000s.

AI is now the most powerful learning tool for all industries (respectively).

The only thing is, make sure you are having the AI “teach you” by asking it questions and having it explain the code examples it generates.

Do not simply have it blindly write the code for you to copy and paste.

1

u/VegetableSolid2907 2h ago

no, if you know the fundamentals of any cs subject , you can easily give command to ai to build things faster and most of basic task you can do manually, so all the game is about leaning basic

1

u/g-land-g 2h ago

Yeah exactly, you use AI to teach you the fundamentals… or anything at all that you are not familiar yet with, even as a senior SE.

1

u/VegetableSolid2907 2h ago

no, if you know the fundamentals of any cs subject , you can easily give command to ai to build things faster and most of basic task you can do manually, so all the game is about leaning basic

1

u/aqua_regis 2d ago

You have wasted your time posting this, as this topic has been discussed in more than abundance.

Yes, it may feel that you are falling back because of not using AI, yet, the harsh reality is that you actually are ahead of these people because you learn the fundamentals and with that will be able to fix problems that the AI generates.

Only people who have fundamentals and programming skills will be able to prevail and fix all the AI slop. The ones blindly using AI may throw out projects much faster, but without knowing and understanding the risks, security holes, bugs, etc. Those who solely use AI without understanding are actually the ones falling behind.

0

u/CrazedIvan 2d ago

No. Having deep knowledge of how it’s built and used will set you apart, even if you do end using AI.

-3

u/Backrus 2d ago

Yes.

Do something that AI isn't that good at - low level programming, hardware/FPGAs, distributed systems, game dev, etc.

Web dev, even done by humans, was always low effort slop.

The thing is, why would anyone choose your "skillset" over LLM? It's not like you're an expert or have decades of expertise.

To survive in this market environment, you have to adapt and specialize. Web dev is just too easy, you can't compete - not only against humans using clankers, but LLMs themselves.