Has AI made you a better problem solver, or just faster at finding solutions?
Something I've noticed since I started building with AI is that the way I approach problems has completely changed.
When I first started, I'd describe what I wanted, let AI generate the code, and hope everything worked lol.
Now I find myself spending more time thinking about why something should work a certain way, what could go wrong, and how changing one thing might affect everything else.
It's interesting because I started with basically zero coding experience, but I've learned a surprising amount about software just from trying to understand and troubleshoot what AI builds.
At the same time, I wonder how much of that knowledge I'd actually retain if the AI disappeared tomorrow.
For everyone building with AI, do you feel like you're genuinely becoming a better developer, or just getting better at working with AI?
And do you think there's even a meaningful difference between the two anymore?
Replies
for me the stuff that stuck came from the failures.. two claude code sessions in one repo and one killed the other's run because it matched a process by name. i'd never have learned to kill the exact pid you started if that hadn't bitten me. so maybe the difference is whether you go read why it broke or just ask it to fix it again
For me it feels more like reach than skill. I've done everything on my own for years, from development to marketing to tax and legal, and working with agents feels like all of that got stretched a lot further. The thinking about why something should work is still mine, though.