Comment by torginus
9 hours ago
That doesn't really line up with my experience, I wanted to debug a CMake file recently, having done no such thing before - AI helped me walk through the potential issues, explaining what I got wrong.
I learned a lot more in a short amount of time than I would've stumbling around on my own.
Afaik its been known for a long time that the most effective way of learning a new skill, is to get private tutoring from an expert.
This highly depends on your current skill level and amount of motivation. AI is not a private tutor as AI will not actually verify that you have learned anything, unless you prompt it. Which means that you must not only know what exactly to search for (arguably already an advanced skill in CS) but also know how tutoring works.
My skill level when it comes to CMake is just north of nonexistent, but I was highly motivated as it kinda blocked me in what I actually wanted to do.
Has the claim in your third paragraph been backed by research? Not snark, genuinely curious. I have some anecdotal, personal experience backing it up.