Why I'm Re-learning to Code

Back in 2017, my friends and I decided to launch Tailor Brews, a beer company with big dreams. There was just one problem—we had no one to build the digital infrastructure we needed. So, I did what any determined entrepreneur would do: I locked myself in a room and dove into a Udemy course on the MEAN stack. Three to four days later, I had some pretty basic apps up and running.

Things started to take off when I landed my first freelance gig doing frontend development. Shortly after, I secured a full-time developer role at a startup. That intense year of coding was a game-changer. But as time went on, I found myself shifting gears towards no-code tools, growth strategies, and product management. Webflow became my go-to for website development—it kept the same CSS & HTML syntax I was comfortable with and made it easier to scope projects for engineers.

After 8 years, I’ve come to the point where I was rusty to the point where I couldn’t code anything anymore.

Is AI Really Taking Over Coding?

Lately, it feels like AI is everywhere, especially in coding. With the latest GPT-o1 model, we’ve seen a massive boost in AI’s coding capabilities. Imagine building and deploying apps just by talking about your ideas. It’s happening sooner than we think.

But here’s my take: learning to code is still incredibly valuable.

When I taught year 9 students calculus, I started by explaining its origins and applications—they suddenly got it so much better. Similarly, understanding code gives you a deeper appreciation of what AI can do. I believe AI will turn everyday people into “10x engineers” and regular engineers into “100x engineers.” That’s a massive leap in productivity and capability.

Rebuilding my Personal Site with NextJS

Recently, I decided to rebuild my website, Ajays.quest, using NextJS. This process forced me to revisit the basics of JavaScript, Tailwind CSS, and NextJS’s file structure.

While I’m still getting the hang of it, I now know how my app should be structured, where to put generated code, how to debug with AI and finally deploy my working product. There are parts of the code where I’m still not 100% sure how it works but each day I get a little bit better - whilst also shipping things (which keeps my motivation up).

How I’ve been Coding with AI

Rather than relying entirely on AI from day one, I gradually incorporated it into my workflow. Initially, I wrote all my code manually. Then, I started using AI for autocomplete suggestions, followed by generating entire components and sections. My next goal is to generate complete apps with AI and refine them myself.

This incremental approach offers significant benefits. Generating an entire app from scratch and then attempting to modify it piece by piece can be overwhelming. By allowing AI to augment my development process step-by-step, I better appreciate and understand its contributions.

I’ve been using Cursor, an IDE integrated with AI, primarily leveraging the Claude 3.5 model. It’s been highly effective, especially when I provide specific API documentation as context.

Additionally, using the GPT-o1 model, which offers more comprehensive explanations, has enhanced my ability to follow and learn from the generated code.

Here are examples of how I’ve been using it:

Why You Should Still Learn to Code

Here’s the thing: mastering even 20% of coding skills can get you 80% of the way there. You don’t need to become a world-class developer, but having some coding knowledge will set you apart from most citizen coders out there. It empowers you to create apps and solutions that others might find out of reach.

I’m currently working through Marc Lou’s CodeFast course, and it’s been a game-changer for me (not sponsored).

How I would speed-learn coding today (with AI)

You could pay for a course, go to youtube or use AI to teach you but these are the baseline skills that will give you 10x returns on your ‘coding’ with less effort. You will be focused on HTML, CSS, Javascript, JSX, NextJS as your primary tools. This will allow you to understand static websites pretty well like landing pages.

For more complex apps, I would start to learn about APIs, databases and other things more. However, with this path I learned enough to connect my personal site to Beehiiv to get subscribers, display my latest newsletters and interface with notion.

This is my quick start roadmap:

1. HTML/CSS: Get the basics down—it should only take about an hour.

2. JavaScript Basics: Learn the essentials of this powerful language.

3. Setting Up and Deploying a NextJS App: Understand the folder structure and how to create new pages.

4. Running Your App and Installing NPM Packages: Manage your dependencies like a pro.

5. Understanding Components: Break your app into manageable, reusable parts.

6. JSX Fundamentals: Blend JavaScript with HTML seamlessly.

7. TailwindCSS: Speed up your styling process with this utility-first framework.

8. Environment Variables: Learn to configure and use them securely.

9. Basic APIs in NextJS: Integrate external data and functionalities.

10. GitHub Commit Practices: Track and manage your code changes efficiently.

11. Deploying on Vercel: Launch your app to the world effortlessly.

12. DNS and Domain Setup: Make your app accessible via a custom domain.

13. Advanced JavaScript/JSX: Deepen your understanding to follow and enhance AI-generated code.

Once you’ve got these down, start leveraging AI to build out components and sections of your code, iterating as you go. For more complex features like user authentication and payments, you can learn just-in-time as you encounter those challenges.

Hope this helped!

Cheers,

Ajay

Things I actually use  🚀
Here are a few recommendations or ways I can help you. Follow the links if any of these are interesting. (FYI - Using these links helps support the newsletter through a small kick back!)

🌍 Hiring Global Talent: Fine A+ players at lower costs with Athyna
👨‍🎨 Get Unlimited Design Work: Want great designs at a low monthly cost? Try ManyPixels
📰 Build a Newsletter: Want to build a newsletter like me? Try Beehiiv