Well, you are learning something, just the thing you’re learning has an even shorter usable lifespan than programming languages, namely you’re learning what works to get useful responses from ai agents. Whether or not that has value to you is a different matter, but it’s worth bearing in mind something is being learned, even if it’s not engineering or programming.

> namely you’re learning what works to get useful responses from ai agents.

Having worked a lot with AI agents, I don't agree.

AI agents are amazing at producing response and results that look correct as long as you don't look too closely.

Even when I try to write extremely detailed specs and test harnesses, even Opus 4.8 and GPT-5.5 on max will find creative new ways to write code that breaks under real use cases.

Doing throwaway LLM output, playing with it a little bit, and then calling it done will create a false sense that you're really good at getting LLMs to produce working things.

You're learning to manage idiot savants, which is a very useful skill.