🌟 Learning to Code from Scratch with AI: Trials, Errors, and Triumphs

I thought vibe coding would be like magic. 😄 Instead, I ended up breaking my app three times, learning Git the hard way, and somehow enjoyed it! This post is for anyone who’s dared to dream of coding but was met with a harsh dose of reality.

🚀 My Messy First Attempt at Learning to Code

If you’ve ever thought, “AI makes coding easier now, maybe I could finally build something”… this post is for you. I jumped in with zero experience and got a reality check that AI can help but it won’t do all the heavy lifting. Here’s what I wish I knew before I started!

🛠️ Starting Out

I started with Visual Studio Code—thanks, ChatGPT! Brutal introduction, to say the least. I was just copy-pasting code from ChatGPT into VS Code without understanding what I was doing. 🤦‍♂️ Totally lost!
Then, someone mentioned Lovable. I liked it, but soon ran through credits like a kid in a candy store. It became pricey fast! So, I made the leap to Cursor. Cheaper and seemed more aligned with my needs. But hold up—progress wasn’t as easy as I’d imagined!

I was still wiring things manually and felt like I was following a treasure map without a compass. Like when I connected my app to Supabase. No clue what I was doing, just following steps and hoping for success.

🚧 My Big Screw-Up

Supabase was handling my database, security rules, and magical logins all at once. It worked, but I wasn’t keen on the appearance of the Supabase emails. My friend recommended Resend—I jumped in without a second thought and asked Cursor to integrate it. 💥 What I didn’t realize was that Cursor added NextAuth for authentication, although Supabase was already covering that. Total chaos ensued!

Logins broke, errors multiplied, and it felt like throwing marshmallows at insulation solutions. I couldn’t read the code well enough to see the actual issue. 🥴 I tried to fix it for days, gave up, and attempted a rebuild with Neon + Resend + NextAuth. Spoiler alert: it didn’t work either!

Ultimately, I scrapped everything and returned to Supabase. Third attempt. 😩 Each restart came with a little bit of progress; each time I learned just a bit more.

🤔 What It Feels Like

Learning to code feels like assembling IKEA furniture without the instructions. You get frustrated, you think you know better, but then you realize that there’s a piece missing! 🛠️ I know what the finished project should look like, but the journey to get there? Well, that’s a different story.

Vibe coding certainly helps a beginner like me create things, but understanding what’s going on in the code is just as crucial. Each mistake is a lesson learned.

🎉 Small Wins That Mattered

• Learning Ctrl + C to stop the terminal. Silly, but empowering!
• Recognizing and fixing recurring bugs. Felt like being a coding detective!
• Catching mismatched Supabase queries instead of staring cluelessly.
• Getting Docker, CLI, and Chromium up and running—a big deal!
• Finally grasping Git. Initially thought the undo function in Cursor sufficed, but now I commit constantly for checkpoints.
• YouTube. Sometimes, a walkthrough video clears the confusion that AI just can’t solve.

📣 Takeaways (For Fellow Beginners)

1. AI won’t stop you from failing; it just helps you fail faster. And that’s where the real learning begins.
2. Don’t restart every time! Bugs are a part of your process. Learning to debug is essential.
3. Use Git early. It’s your version control—the lifesaver when things go wrong.
4. Celebrate the tiny wins! Fixing one bug can lead to progress. 🎉
5. Mix in YouTube. Sometimes, you need to see it to understand it.

📍 Where I’m At Now

Still a beginner, but my mindset shifted! Now, when something fails, I try to grasp why it broke, rather than just relying on Cursor to patch it for me. (This realization took me a while, though!)

So I’m curious:

• What’s a mistake you made as a beginner that taught you a lot?
• What’s one small win that made you feel like, “Ok, I’m a coder now”?
• How do you keep from relying too much on AI suggestions?

— Kaia 🦄