alt Hacker News> More people that are not devs, are using AI to create things, and are skilling up to a mediocre level?
What skills are being developed by non-devs prompting AI to churn out code they don't understand? Note that I'm not debating if the code is good or works or whatever, I'm asking if any real skills are being developed merely by prompting AI towards some goal.
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I don't think it is zero.
If they are producing code, there is some knowledge being absorbed. Nobody is using AI to create an app is learning zero.
Its just what they are learning, is not as much as they think, and really random, not-structured. Like reading just a few random chapter of a book across multiple classes. They get a smattering of ad-hoc tidbits of knowledge.
I am really worried if using AI is reducing someone's already gained knowledge. Moving someone backwards. That has me a bit more scared.
my sister and two of her friends put together a small company. She asked me to work on a mobile app for them, like a small niche LMS. I was making progress but fell behind, i have a demanding job/family and she doesnt. She asked if she could try to take it over, i told her about claudecode and then gave her some magic words to get started with. Basically, some framework names and some other technologies involved and some prompt guidance. She completely took off with it and came up with a flow where she chats with ChatGPT and it tells her what to tell ClaudeCode, she copy/pastes into claudecode does it's thing.
How could it possibly work? Except she got through setting up her own Apple dev account, all the certificates, subscription entitlement, revenuecat integration, TestFlight, all the paperwork that goes along with a listing and all of that in about 3 weeks. She submitted her app to the AppStore for review last friday.
She didn't learn any coding but she sure as hell produced a pretty good mobile app with a subscription payment system all on her own with the help of ChatGPT and ClaudeCode. She's also producing different tools that run on her website which is hosted on squarespace. I have no idea how she's doing it but she has all these little questionairre and decision tree pages backed by google sheets. She's the second non-coder i've seen really blossom with AI and just run with it building stuff she's always wanted but never knew how.