A Really Cool and Unexpected By-Product of AI Slop

A friend just created his first Github repo, a month ago he didn’t know what HTML was, or how it was used. There’s something happening behind the scenes right now that should be highlighted. People are becoming fascinated with computer science and software development at a rate never before seen. Yes there are the vibe coders progressively degenerating, but there are also those discovering a passion to increase their understanding, to write, dare I say it, more code by hand.

I started out the same way, from experimenting with AI, to finding an insatiable desire to understand how the 1s and 0s work. Unfortunately I cannot consume 6 hours of course work and reading material every evening, but I wish I could, because every turn my learning takes there is something fascinating around the corner.

Several times in my journey thus far I have met road blocks, but as long as I pushed through and gained comprehension through repetition or seeking advice from an experienced developer, I keep flying forward.

In the beginning I thought the goal was to “learn AI” so I could market my self as some type of AI specialist, but that quickly changed to wanting to understand the core of how the web works, I want to be able to fix things, and build strong, secure, efficient, and scalable software.

For me I can pinpoint the moment I realized that programming knowledge had immense value. The first time I had AI build a project management app specific to my needs, the initial feeling of accomplishment was intense. The fact that I saw a problem, and was able to build something “beautiful” to fix it, was a feeling I wanted to keep producing.

Being able to build feels like a super power. In 2026, everybody uses, and needs software. You can provide a valuable service to people, and the more you understand, the more impact you can have in a rapidly changing industry. The caveat was that I was not actually building, I was acting as the project owner explaining what I needed to solve and having an agent actually build the solution for me.

Similar to a how a general contractor “builds” a house, the AI agent was acting as my subcontractor. Except I realized something that flipped my thinking. A general contractor is only effective when they have a deep understanding of the build process and can discern good builders from bad, and whether or not sub contractors are lying through their teeth when they explain the work that needs to be done.

Point being is good general contractors have well rounded understanding built on experience and education, and they would not be able to do their jobs if they did not understand how to do the plumbers job, how to do the framers job. They may not be experts at each trade, but they have good foundations and could get the job done themselves if needed.

Me building the project management app was the same as me general contracting the build of a house. Since I have no construction experience in any trade you can see how powerful that picture is. Yes the app will not hurt any one, the consequences of a bad home build are far worse than a bad web app. But this realization spurred an interest into learning, I wanted to recreate the feeling of solving a problem with software, but I wanted to do it with zero comprehension debt.

I am not there yet, but the closer I get the more exhilarating it is. Today was the first time I discovered the difference between a run time environment and the so called “backend” of a web application. There is so much to learn and so many important technologies we rely on every day in our systems, I can see now how this field offers a lifetime of learning and growing which I find endearing.

To all those people who have created their first single html file app with 2,000 + lines of code and a single JSON object as your database, keep going, dig deeper, the excitement you are feeling gets better. I feel like having an agent build a prototype is just the modern version of print(“hello world”). It opens up your world to endless possibilities that can be achieved with commitment and discipline.

In my faith I have been struggling for the past two years with what God wants to use me for. I want to serve, but finding a calling is difficult. I have always had an interest in technology which got me into IT, but the AI doomsday talking heads had convinced me I needed to pick up plumbing, refrigeration, or something “real”. Life was becoming pretty depressing with this worldview, but when God gave me a kick in the pants and reminded me to chase after him first, then naturally I stumbled into programming and found joy I had been missing for quite some time.

I am very excited for the future, and cannot wait for the day I can build something special that makes someone’s day.