this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2026

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Programming

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AI ruined everything (asking for advice) (feddit.it)

submitted 5 days ago by super_user_do@feddit.it to c/programming@programming.dev

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Hello everyone! For many years, I have been coding every once in a while and actually learned a lot. I especially liked C and C-Like languages and building useless stuff just for fun and for the sake of the intellectual challenge that came with it, but since when AI became decent enough, it just kinda ruined the passion for programming and computers as a whole. Thing is, I am in university now and need to go back to using C and program regularly, but now that AI does everything 20000 times better than I ever will I always either cede to temptation to use it (thus nullifying learning) or just get bored so quickly I just turn off the computer to do something different.

is there a way to revive the interest for programming and building projects? I am doing my best to stop using AI but heck I really am self-indulging. please help!

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[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 87 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (4 children)

AI doesnt do everything 20000 times better than you ever will.

Don’t tell yourself that.

It’s better than you right now, but every mid-level tech worker will tell you it sucks. You have significantly higher capacity than it, you just have to learn to get there and that isn’t easy or quick.

[–] super_user_do@feddit.it 1 points 1 day ago

Thank you for your encouragement :3

[–] wewbull@feddit.uk 6 points 4 days ago

I'm not sure it's even faster. Damn thing ties itself in knots trying to do basic tasks.

[+] FizzyOrange@programming.dev -21 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Yeah the problem is will he learn faster than AI improves? I wouldn't want to be in his shoes.

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 18 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Oh no, they have bettered themselves for nothing!

You should watch TNG When the Bough Breaks, that’s the future we’re heading for if everyone decides to not learn hard things because the computer can do it

[–] super_user_do@feddit.it 1 points 1 day ago

Luckily that's not my case, I still do very complex stuff. I just happened to lose the passion for coding

[–] trebach@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 days ago

And once AI can no longer sustain itself once people become reliant on it, you get the modern version of "The Machine Stops" by E. M. Forster from 1909: https://web.cs.ucdavis.edu/~rogaway/classes/188/materials/the%20machine%20stops.pdf

[–] FizzyOrange@programming.dev 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

You said

It’s better than you right now, but every mid-level tech worker will tell you it sucks. You have significantly higher capacity than it, you just have to learn to get there and that isn’t easy or quick.

I was just pointing out that this view completely depends on AI improving slower than he does. I would not put money on that.

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

It does not.

AI can get better but this is learned helplessness.

[–] FizzyOrange@programming.dev 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Of course it does. You said he has a higher capacity than AI and he just needs to learn to get there. Well that's no help if by the time he does AI has advanced even further.

learned helplessness

No, I just accept reality. You can bury your head in the sand if you like.

[–] super_user_do@feddit.it 1 points 1 day ago

I'm sure AI must have a limit since AGI is still not there and apparently won't be realized any time soon. I know I can become even better than AI but that is gonna take years and this is the kind of thing that requires for pleasure to be found in the pathway to the objective and not to the objective by itself

[–] atopi@piefed.blahaj.zone 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

It is known that, with effort, a person can improve from the level they are in university

It is not known how much AI can be improved

[–] FizzyOrange@programming.dev -2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

It is not known how much AI can be improved

I didn't say it was. But at this point it would be a pretty wild prediction to think it's not going to continue to rapidly improve.

[–] atopi@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Is it a wild thing to predict that AI improvement will slow down?

[–] FizzyOrange@programming.dev 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yes.

[–] atopi@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Why?

[–] FizzyOrange@programming.dev 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

A few reasons:

The evidence so far seems to be that AI capability scales with compute, and compute continues to advance. Including with crazy AI hardware like Cerebras and Taalas. There are still a ton of AI hardware startups that have yet to tape out.
There's an enormous amount of research into algorithmic and infrastructure improvements, which also show no signs of slowing down.
Empirically, it has been getting better continuously for several years now. There appears to be no reason to suspect any blockers.

In other words: why not?

To steel man, the main reasons I would counter with are:

Moore's law is pretty much dead... Except that we still have a ton of headroom with custom AI-focused chips. E.g. I know of at least two startups working on DRAM stacked on the compute chip instead of next to it, which gives dramatically higher memory bandwidth.
There are still a couple of architectural issues, e.g. context length is limited, AI can't really remember/learn things on-line, hallucination is not solved. But... in practice those problems seem to not matter too much and also hallucinations seem less common the more capable the model is, so maybe it doesn't need an architectural solution at all.

[–] agentlangdon@infosec.pub 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

"dram stacked on the compute chip" is the amd x3d design which has been out for gaming PCs for years now.

The rest of your statements seem clueless and completely based on AI company marketing.

[–] FizzyOrange@programming.dev 1 points 2 days ago

amd x3d design which has been out for gaming PCs for years now.

That's SRAM, not DRAM. But sure, I'm the clueless one.