Tips On How to Learn Programming Efficiently Amidst AI Era

The contents of this blog are purely based on personal opinions. Any similarities to existing contents are of pure coincidence. Any materials used for the blog belongs to their rightful owners.

For the last decade, we relied on so little that we have, online resources, books, forums etc. We went to the pain of seeking the answers to a problem. However, to this day, those things are pretty much a thing of the past. Everything is given as if being spoon-fed. But what is the state of our learning? How does this sudden change affect us? How can we keep up with the fast-paced industry? How can we make sure we are learning the right way?

Research

Not knowing what to learn is poison. It's like solving a maze without drawing the map of the dungeon. Being able to know what you want to learn and prioritize will make it very easy for you to progress and get the things you actually need.

Knowing what you are diving yourself into will help you on prepping yourself to the huge amount of stress and effort on the subject you will learn. Being able to learn the rewards and stages of progress will also allow you to be motivated along the way. Do yourself a favor and research.

Start Small

It's human desire to make it big, and as big as possible. But rushing things head-on won't make things "faster" than you actually think it would. Start with the basics, grind your way on every single detail on the fundamentals you need.

I've seen so many people making the mistake of adding complexity to their projects, only to end up on a wall big enough for them to lose motivation and eventually stop. Not only does this hinder your growth, but it also affects your momentum and the confidence you have built and what's left of it.

Don't rush for the gold, if you train yourself enough to avoid most of the traps, you'll be able to raid a lot of treasure dungeons.

Avoid Saturation

Yes, I get it. The feeling of being able to know it all. The pride the comes along with it. But in reality, shallow understanding on a wide variety of things may just be the worst thing possible. In a very practical industry, mastery is important specially for companies that rely on specialists on some critical decisions on the everyday life of the company.

Stop trying to take everything at once, learn one at a time, master it and then you move on to the next one. Multitasking does sound amazing, but it comes with a high price. If you're not a gifted genius with a mind that runs like a bullet train, just focus on a single thing and learn everything you can on it.

Consistency

A hardworking idiot beats a lazy genius, stop looking for the motivation to come, be willing to show up every day and learn, whatever the platform, be it just a single 5-minute YouTube video, or a heated discussion on discord, if it helps then it matters.

While there are different ways for people to learn, one thing is for sure, don't stop learning. Being able to consistently accumulate data for your brain will help you on the long term. Foster a mind that relentlessly thirsts for knowledge.

Be Curious Not Lazy

What took people hours and hours of searching and skimming through books and books, are now presented to you in a prompt that takes less than 5 seconds. So, use the time you saved from the trouble of searching through the entire internet to be curious and ask, inquire how things work, why it works that way, and what other methods you can use.

It's amazing to see that there are no absolute paths in solving a problem, different styles, complexity and algorithms. Learn from asking non-stop, make it that you end the day without questions lingering in your mind.

Limit As Little Abstraction As Possible

While it's good that there are things that are already built out there waiting to be inserted in our code, and minimizing our effort to do a certain task. It's not helpful in learning how things the way they are. Oftentimes these things are compiled and would be hard to understand.

It doesn't benefit your learning if you simply avoid the agony of writing a function and rely on packages built by someone else. Being in full control of your code is also very crucial in handling bugs along the way. Create your own utility functions, understand every problem and create solutions on your own accord.

Avoid Distractions

It's a common problem across all aspects in life, we probably procrastinate almost half the day everyday just to satisfy our hungry brains asking for entertainment. And for some people, coding isn't just as fun. But whatever the case may be, avoid wasting your time and use every bit of it to learn.

A busy moron is better than a distracted genius, along with consistency and strong will, any concept is understandable. Make it that distractions become noise not a melody, the more you crave to learn, the harder it is for you stray out of your goal.

Use AI To Your Advantage

AI came down like an armageddon, and it won't be going away for a long time, rather than moping around and questioning life, why not make it a part of you?

Certainly, it can be very scary how it can achieve things we normally would take hours and hours of sweat, blood, and pain in the ass (literally). But it could be the very thing that would help you upskill and soar higher. Here are some things you can do with AI to improve your knowledge and skills:

• Ask questions, literally, just ask.
• Question your understanding, try to apply feynman method while you're at it.
• Engage in open ended questions, test your reasoning.
• Gamify with AI, learn by making things more challenging (tests, multiple choice, identification, etc.)
• Don't end a concept simply by knowing the WHAT, end it by knowing the HOW. Prompting is infinite, don't hesitate.
• Ask suggestions, guides, and a roadmap for you to know what's your next move.

There should be a lot of techniques out there, try to figure out what works for you the best, and make sure you retain your sanity, still self conscious, re-evaluating yourself if you're being over reliant on the tool.