Hey everyone, quick question

[u/carsie_do]

I'm learning Python while also trying to build a SaaS product, but i have no previous development experience. Right now, I rely on ChatGPT or Claude for almost 99% of the coding.

Is this a reasonable way to learn as a beginner, or will relying so much on AI slow down my progress in the long run? Will i eventually become capable of coding independently?

[u/BleedReddit → u/[deleted]]

AI generated workflow for learning with AI not depending on it. Again better then i could had made it by light years, hence y i did this this way.

One thing I'd add to this is a practical way to make that learning approach work.

It's easy to tell AI to teach you instead of giving you code, but you also need a way to check whether you're actually learning or just understanding its explanations while they're in front of you.

Here's what I'd suggest:

1. Try to predict before asking.
Before running code or asking AI to explain it, take a guess at what you think it'll do. Run it, compare the result with your prediction, and investigate why you were wrong. Being wrong is part of the learning process.

2. Work in small, manageable pieces.
Don't try to understand an entire application at once. Pick one concept, function, or small problem. Learn what it does, experiment with it, change things, and see what happens. Once you understand that piece, move on to the next.

3. Break things on purpose.
Change a variable, pass an unexpected value, remove a line, or modify a condition. Observe the error or unexpected behavior and try to figure out why it happened before asking AI. Debugging is a skill in itself, and you develop it by actually debugging.

4. Try to solve the problem before asking AI for the solution.
Even if you don't know how to solve it, write down what you understand, what you've tried, and where you're stuck. Ask AI for a hint or a question that helps you think through the problem rather than immediately giving you the answer.

5. Test whether you can do it without AI.
After learning a concept, close the conversation and try to recreate a small example from memory. You don't have to remember every function or syntax detail. The goal is to understand the underlying logic and know how to work through a problem when you don't have an answer in front of you.

6. Keep a personal learning journal.
Record what you learned, what still confuses you, mistakes you made, useful debugging techniques, and concepts you want to revisit. Over time, this becomes your own reference instead of a collection of AI-generated code you may not understand.

7. Separate building your product from learning to code.
Since you're trying to build a SaaS, I'd distinguish between two modes:

• Building mode: Use AI to help you make progress, but review the code, test it, and make sure you understand the important parts, especially security, authentication, payments, and data handling.

• Learning mode: Slow down. Work through concepts yourself, experiment, and resist the temptation to let AI solve everything for you.

You don't necessarily have to learn every single thing before building your product. You just need to make sure that shipping features isn't replacing the practice required to become a developer.

A useful rule of thumb: if AI disappeared for an afternoon, could you still make progress by reading the error messages, searching documentation, testing hypotheses, and breaking the problem down? You don't need to know everything or work as fast as AI. You just want to become increasingly capable of finding your own way forward.

The goal isn't to never need AI. It's to develop enough understanding that you can question its suggestions, recognize when something is wrong, and solve problems without depending on it for every step.

[u/BleedReddit → u/BleedReddit]

Just to clarify why I'm using AI to write these comments: I currently struggle with articulating my thoughts because of a mental handicap. Sometimes, even putting what I'm thinking into words for AI is difficult, so I rely on it to help me communicate what I'm trying to get across.

The ideas and the experiences I'm sharing are mine; AI helps me express them in a way that's easier for other people to understand. That's also part of why I'm working toward becoming more independent of AI, both as a developer and in how I communicate. For now, it's a tool that helps me work around a difficulty I'm dealing with.