Don't Learn Prompt Engineering. Here's What Matters More
06 Sep 2025 #codingI’m not an AI evangelist, and I’m not a hater either.
I’ve tried AI for coding. And after a week or two, I noticed how dependent I was becoming. Since then, I’ve used AI for small coding tasks, like generating small functions or finding typos, not to treat English as my main programming language.
Marcus Hutchins, a security researches, puts it boldly in his post Every Reason Why I Hate AI and You Should Too:
I’d make a strong argument that what you shouldn’t be doing is “learning” to do everything with AI. What you should be doing is learning regular skills. Being a domain expert prompting an LLM badly is going to give you infinitely better results than a layperson with a “World’s Best Prompt Engineer” mug.
I agree with the core message. When everybody is relying on AI, it’s time to go back to old-school habits:
- Read code
- Write trustworthy tests
- Devour classic textbooks
- Troubleshoot bugs with pen and paper
And outside coding: read books on paper, take notes by hand, and write our own summaries. To develop taste and judgment.
Using AI is like holding a calculator on a math exam. Even the best calculator is useless if you don’t know what to compute, it’s pretty much useless. Build skills, then leverage AI.
I used to think coding was only about cracking symbols. That’s where AI shines. But coding is also about talking to non-tech managers, negotiating deadlines, and saying no politely.
And that’s why I wrote, Street-Smart Coding: 30 Ways to Get Better at Coding, to share the skills I wish I’d learned to become a confident coder.
Get your copy of Street-Smart Coding here. It’s the roadmap I wish I had when I was starting out.