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wrs01/15/20262 repliesview on HN

"I don’t think you need LLMs to learn programming."

What the... Are we already to the point where you have to say this to people?


Replies

GrowingSideways01/15/2026

Yes. I work with teenagers and young adults teaching them how to program, both directly and as a support skill. These are bright young people who can work through problems with enough time—but LLMs allow them through these problems in a minute or two.

I've taken, particularly in people learning programming as a support skill, to teaching them how to verify the solution rather than asking them to deal with hours of frustration while their peers don't bother. A tool is a tool, as sad as it makes me to say looking back on teaching myself how to code 20 years ago.

ryan_n01/16/2026

With how much big tech/big corps in general are shoving AI down everyones throats its not surprising people feel the need to say stuff like this. I do find them helpful for learning, but obviously it s not required.