The Tower of Hanoi and why AI won't make you a skilled developer

Source: Dev.to

Background

One of my most memorable classes while earning my degree was “Logic in Programming” at a Dallas County Community College. It felt like an ivy‑league course in its depth and rigor.

The Tower of Hanoi Assignment

On the very first day, our teacher gave us a single task: solve the Tower of Hanoi puzzle and break it into precise instructions. I’ve always enjoyed puzzles, so I tackled it with enthusiasm. Throughout the semester we tackled similar problems while gradually learning Visual Basic and C#. The focus was on how to solve a problem, not just how to code it. I treasure that experience as one of my most formative as an engineer.

AI and Modern Development

Continuing from my previous post “Being a JavaScript Dev vs. a Framework Dev”, I’m increasingly concerned that the same pattern is spreading across engineering as a whole, driven by the prevalence of AI. Many newer developers are no longer learning how to solve problems; they are learning how to use a specific tool, resulting in an AI‑first approach that gives false confidence about the difficulty of programming.

Learning how to swing a hammer well doesn’t make you skilled at building a wooden shelf.

The Problem with Overreliance on AI

A friend recently shared a story about mentoring someone trying to break into her first tech role. The mentee hit a plateau in her coding skills and struggled to debug an issue. When questioned, she admitted she couldn’t debug without AI, and the AI wasn’t helping with her niche problem. She was stuck.

She was a full‑stack developer who had touched both front‑end and back‑end systems, yet she lacked the most important core skill as an engineer: the principles of problem solving.

It seemed inconceivable to rely on AI so heavily, but I don’t blame her. Technology pushes AI as a panacea, especially for newer developers. I’m not opposed to using AI as a tool for occasional help, advice, organization, or output amplification. What I oppose is using it to replace your own problem‑solving skills entirely.

AI isn’t going anywhere, and it will become an essential part of the workflow. However, our value as engineers will never lie in the ability to simply copy‑paste a solution. It lies in our judgment—our ability to critically assess an AI’s output, debug it when it inevitably breaks, and architect a system from vague business requirements. If you don’t know why a solution works, you can’t be the one who fixes it.

Call to Action

If you are a newer developer, treat your problem‑solving muscle as essential. Don’t outsource the struggle. When you encounter a puzzle, step away from AI prompts at first.

• Sketch the logic on paper.
• Trace the data flow.
• Deliberately work through the problem without a safety net.

That ability to solve puzzles independently is the foundational skill that was taught to me in that Dallas classroom. In today’s muddy waters of AI usage, it remains the skill that separates a durable, adaptable, and genuinely skilled developer from one who merely passes the output of a prompt.

Invest in your logic first. The code will follow.