> because it's really hard to learn anything by skimming code that's being pooped out by Claude.

I think this is pretty dubious. It's true that you have to do more proactive learning with an agentic workflow, but it doesn't mean you can't learn stuff. Software engineers forged in the age of AI are not learning the same things their predecessors did or thinking about code in the same way, but the more curious people will still be better at the job, which is I think how it's always been. It seems a little unclear how much "AI brain rot" will be a force unto itself that neuters even the smartest of the juniors, but I think it's still an open question.

I think AI is a great learning tool - I have learned a ton from it.

But when I just ask to do a thing and then read the code (typical in a professional environment when there’s pressure to get shit delivered), i have not found that be an effective learning method.

When I’m learning from it I typically go out of my way to have it explain how to do things and things are the way they are. And I often leave the actual typing the code to myself, since that tends to force an active understanding that’s not required when you’re just reading.

If folks have other ideas on how to get that active understanding, I’d love to hear them. Because telling people they should type code seems like it’s going the way of telling people to write cursive.