Before AI Wrote Our Code
Source: Dev.to
The Pre‑AI Coding Experience
It was 2018. I was sitting at my desk, probably at 1 AM, staring at a screen full of red error messages. My coffee was cold, my energy was low, but I was alive with purpose.
There was no AI assistant to complete our sentences or to look at a broken function and gently explain, “Hey, you forgot a semicolon.” We just opened a blank file and started typing—badly and confidently at the same time.
The IT and coding field was booming. Every article said, “Learn to code.” Every YouTube video promised a six‑figure job.
The Bug‑Solving Workflow
- Hit an error.
- Google the exact error message (quotes and all).
- Land on Stack Overflow.
- Scan several answers, often filled with debates in the comments about the “proper” approach.
- Find the answer with the green checkmark, thousands of upvotes, and a posting date that may be years old but still relevant.
Read the answer once, then twice. Compare it to your code, copy the snippet, paste it, hold your breath, and press Run.
It works. The feeling was euphoric—like solving a theorem. You’d lean back, want to tell anyone, “I fixed it.” The fix was often a single line, but it felt like we had hacked the universe.
The Joy of Documentation
Back then, reading documentation felt like reading a novel. You’d explore the API, discover quirks, and internalize patterns without the aid of AI‑generated summaries.
Timeline
- 2018
- 2019
- 2020
- 2022
- Now
Why It Felt Like a Golden Era
The IT field was expanding at a speed that felt almost mythological. Every month brought new frameworks, emerging languages, and startups built on code written by people who, just two years earlier, didn’t know what a variable was. It felt like the wild west, and we were riding in it.