October 4th, 2025
I have been struggling to learn to code for a while now.
Since 2019 really, I have been learning about software and coding. At that time, I was studying Animal Science at Texas A&M University, hoping to get into medical school after graduating, but found myself interested in coding and programming. Conflicted about what to do after graduating, I decided technical writing was a good path because it blended my interests of tech and writing (the name says it all!).
Before entering the masters program at the University of North Texas for tech writing, I took an intro computer science course at a local community college, and really liked it. At that time, I had already worked on some codeacademy tutorials for python, did some projects for a CS50 class, and attempted the intro computer science class at TAMU (I dropped it though; which I regret. I was worried it would ruin my GPA for med school).
Learning about tech writing was super interesting and I really did enjoy it. It seemed to be a good career path for me. But, I always felt the urge to learn more about coding and programming. I was working at my church at the time while in the MA program, so my workload was pretty full.
I have been employed as a tech writer for about 3 years now. I still find myself in the same situation. I want to learn more. This has morphed into learning more about API tech writing. API tech writing is a bridge between the tech writing and web dev world, so it seems natural. But if I’m honest with myself, I just want to learn more about software programming.
I think this means a couple things for me moving forward.
I will continue to work as a technical writer for as long as I know. I don’t see any reason to stop doing that.
But, I will spend less of my free time working on technical writing projects. Instead, outside of spending time with family, friends, and with my church, I will work on learning more about web development. I have been playing with The Odin Project for a while, but never worked on the projects they talk about. I have consistently felt like learning more about coding and software development has been gnawing at me. I think I need to address it now.
I love technical writing. I think it’s a great career, and will stay around to be relevent for most of my life, regardless of AI innovations. I hope now that my career can get supplemented by learning more about web development in my free time as I see fit.
With that in mind, I have also made the decision not to use an AI LLM for learning more about web dev. I don’t see why I would. I honestly am not sure how well LLMs and AI help with learning. I have used it while developing my Flask app and other API documentation projects. I have used it to learn about certain concepts that are unknown to me. But something seems off still.
I could be wrong, but I think the fact that an LLM has no ties to a person’s intentions on teaching and giving help to another person makes it not a great teacher. When googling something, or looking for something on youtube, a person made that happen (whether they used AI or not is besides the point; a person still intended to make that video/website/blog/etc).
You could say that AI is bundling all of the worlds products on the internet (as in, a bundle of peoples intentional web products), and repackaging it into something digestible concerning the context of our prompts. True. But, something still seems off to me. I think I’d rather read a blog or official documentation. Maybe being a technical writer gives me another perspective here. A lot of thought goes into documentation. The team at my current company really cares about quality work. I think that has an effect that goes beyond what any LLM can produce. It suggests that the intention behind the guiding information is more relational rather than convienent.
Those are my latest thoughts on AI. They could change. I think AI can be used in some good ways. But, I don’t think it can replace the relational element of someone teaching another person something. That is unique and valuable.