Are we losing coding creativity as AI blurs the lines between programming and prompting? Welcome to the new reality. Tagged with ai, programming, python, discuss.

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The programming landscape is shifting as AI tools transform coding from writing functions to crafting prompts. While AI assistance can scaffold codebases, generate tests, and speed up routine tasks, it risks diminishing creativity and problem-solving skills. Developers need to balance leveraging AI for efficiency while maintaining deep coding knowledge for debugging, scaling, and handling complex edge cases. The key is knowing when to use AI and when to code manually, as understanding fundamentals remains crucial when AI-generated solutions break or need customization.

Programming Is Becoming Prompting

Prompting Is the New Programming (Apparently)

I don’t think creativity is necessarily lost in this process. Personally, I really enjoy being able to quickly solve tasks even in projects created with a technology stack that is unfamiliar to me.
It’s also great fun to “vibe code” something from scratch. I still have to think about edge cases and other situations. AI won’t cover everything. I still have to do the planning. The AI code assistant is more like an enthusiastic junior employee who needs a little guidance. Personally, it has brought back the fun factor to development for me.

if your foundation is solid then building with ai makes things faster not only that it works to automate tasks faster still fundamentals are crucial as they build a problem solving mindset which when ai can not provide an optimal solution human experience and foresight comes into play i agree with this take from the poster

Great post. Learning to code effectively an LLM is becoming its own discipline and skill that needs to be honed.
Here are some of the things I do to try and strike a balance between leveraging these tools for the productivity and knowledge gain, while not relying on them too much where I would develop skill atrophy or lose track of my code base:
<ul>
<li>My autocomplete/suggestions are disabled by default and I toggle them with a hotkey. Part of this is because I just really hate being suggested to when I am not ready for it, and I simply like the clarity of thought of thinking where I am going to go next. In instances where I know what I want to do and where to go and am looking to just go there faster, I can toggle it back on</li>
<li>I rarely use AI unless its a last resort when problem solving. I still use all the traditional methods and always exhaust my own knowledge and methods before I decide to use AI to help me move past it.</li>
<li>When I do use it, I often will hand-type/manually copy over the solution, piece by piece, rather than just “apply”. This builds muscle memory, makes me think critically about each piece of the solution that was suggested, and avoids potential conflicts. It also is super educational, as it often teaches me different ways of approaching issues. I often will change it as I bring it over, as well, to ensure a flush fit of the suggestions into my existing code.</li>
</ul>
One could say that I will “fall behind” by choosing to use these tools like this, or that I am leaving productivity gains on the table, but I disagree. I am keeping my skills honed and I fail to see a downside for that. In addition, I’m experienced enough to know there’s no free lunch. Moving fast with code now just means you’ll be making up for that later through debugging or the inevitable refactoring that comes with future changes, optimizations, or maintenance.
When I am working in domains where I am extremely comfortable and it’s really just another batch of the same rote work that I am used to, I have a workflow that I’ve configured to ensure that the generated code is aligned my design patterns and best practices. And, I’m always in code review mode when I am leveraging LLMs for that. I am still seeing huge productivity gains as a result, but I’m not outsourcing my most valuable assets.

I’m not denying the risks, but, it’s bittersweet, and ultimately it’s just evolution.
The same thing happened with the internet, then with Google. Each step made access to knowledge easier, and yes, it changed how we work and think.
AI is just another tool. Powerful? Yes. But still a tool.
It won’t take your job unless you let it. It’s up to us to use it wisely, not blindly.