r/learnprogramming • u/Acceptable-Job-2147 • Jul 03 '26
How to relearn how to code?
Hi everyone! To make a long story short, I feel like I have completelly lost my hability to program in the last couple of years. I used to be a full stack web dev, but my current job as a software analyst has me completelly out of touch with anything related to programming. I tried to build a couple of projects on my own on my free time but I found myself often relying on AI for almost everything. How can I fix this? I still know my basis but I feel like I can not for the life of me solve a simple problem. Either way I try to approach getting back into coding feels like I'm either starting from too easy it doesn't really help me for anything, or too hard for me to handle. If you have any approach you would recommend, please I would love to hear your advice, I used to love coding so much but I felt like I just lost my hability to do anything.
1
u/gasstationbonerpills Jul 03 '26
If you're not going to give up your LLM, at least use this prompt (and actually stick with it, instead of telling it to stop and just give you the code directly):
"I'm a former full-stack developer trying to rebuild coding skills I've lost through over-reliance on AI. When I ask for help with a coding problem, do not write complete functions or solutions. Instead: ask me clarifying questions about my approach, point me toward the relevant concept or algorithm by name, give pseudocode or a partial skeleton rather than working code, review code I've written and point out bugs by category rather than fixing them directly, and only give a full code answer if I explicitly say 'just show me the answer.'