I actually felt like I learned the most when I stopped going to Google and StackOverflow for solutions and instead moved to docs. It's far less direct but the information is much more rich. All that auxiliary information compounds. I want to skip it, feeling rushed to get an answer, but I've always been the better for taking the "scenic route". I'd then play around and learn how to push functions and abuse them. Boy there's no learning like learning how to abuse code.
Fwiw, I do use LLMs, but they don't write code for me. They are fantastic rubber ducky machines. Far better than my cat, which is better than an actual rubber duck. They aid in docs too, helping fill in that space when you don't exactly understand them. But don't let them do the hard work nor the boring work. The boring work is where you usually learn the most. It's also the time you don't recognize that's happening
Close to 5 years. I read docs too and love the immersion and the fully grasping of concepts when going with your route, but most days there's just not enough hours for this.
> The boring work is where you usually learn the most. It's also the time you don't recognize that's happening
That was always how I did it before mid-2025. And I do still do boring work when I truly want to master something, but doing that too much just means (for me) not finishing anything.
5 years isn't that long. I've been doing 3X that and I'm constantly learning new things. Not even about new language features but even languages I've been using that whole time. New ways to problem solve. New algorithms. New tools.
Not finishing things can be okay but also not. An important skill to learn is what's good enough. And to write good enough to be easily upgradable. It's important to write code to be flexible for this reason. It's also important to realize it's okay to completely throw away code. But also this is the reason comments are so important. Don't just write what functions do but also write how you envision the design. Even if you can't get to it now. Then when you or anyone else comes back (after lunch, next week, next year, whenever) there's good hints about all that. Knowing how to get up to speed and be effective fast. If anything this helps agents even more. Commenting is a vastly under appreciated skill and only becoming more valuable
I actually felt like I learned the most when I stopped going to Google and StackOverflow for solutions and instead moved to docs. It's far less direct but the information is much more rich. All that auxiliary information compounds. I want to skip it, feeling rushed to get an answer, but I've always been the better for taking the "scenic route". I'd then play around and learn how to push functions and abuse them. Boy there's no learning like learning how to abuse code.
Fwiw, I do use LLMs, but they don't write code for me. They are fantastic rubber ducky machines. Far better than my cat, which is better than an actual rubber duck. They aid in docs too, helping fill in that space when you don't exactly understand them. But don't let them do the hard work nor the boring work. The boring work is where you usually learn the most. It's also the time you don't recognize that's happening