I think we all just need to avoid the trap of using AI to circumvent understanding. I think that’s where most problems with AI lie.
If I understand a problem and AI is just helping me write or refactor code, that’s all good. If I don’t understand a problem and I’m using AI to help me investigate the codebase or help me debug, that’s okay too. But if I ever just let the AI do its thing without understanding what it’s doing and then I just accept the results, that’s where things go wrong.
But if we’re serious about avoiding the trap of AI letting us write working code we don’t understand, then AI can be very useful. Unfortunately the trap is very alluring.
A lot of vibe coding falls into the trap. You can get away with it for small stuff, but not for serious work.
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I think we all just need to avoid the trap of using AI to circumvent understanding. I think that’s where most problems with AI lie.
If I understand a problem and AI is just helping me write or refactor code, that’s all good. If I don’t understand a problem and I’m using AI to help me investigate the codebase or help me debug, that’s okay too. But if I ever just let the AI do its thing without understanding what it’s doing and then I just accept the results, that’s where things go wrong.
But if we’re serious about avoiding the trap of AI letting us write working code we don’t understand, then AI can be very useful. Unfortunately the trap is very alluring.
A lot of vibe coding falls into the trap. You can get away with it for small stuff, but not for serious work.