{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"[Dev]olution","title":"Are You Really Learning to Code If AI Does It for You?","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3483,"description":"John Crickett spent 30 years teaching himself to build software the hard way, and he thinks that's exactly why he's still employable.\nLong before anyone typed a sentence and watched an app appear, John Crickett was writing Quake bots downloaded by millions, chasing a bed and breakfast search engine years before Airbnb existed, and getting laughed out of a VC pitch for an idea he called takeaways online. Today he runs Coding Challenges, where thousands of engineers go to relearn a skill AI is quietly letting them skip.\nIn this episode, John sits down with Nicky Pike to make an argument a lot of the industry won't like. Cranking out code has never been easier. Building the right software, for the right people, for the right reasons, is exactly as hard as it's always been.\n\nThey get into what's actually driving the record number of AI projects getting scrapped before launch, why John still thinks coding and software engineering are two different jobs, and why he's calling the entire AI industry a bubble, on record, with names attached.\n\nIf you've ever handed AI a one-line prompt, gotten back exactly what you expected, and wondered why that felt hollow, this conversation is for you.\n\nIn this episode, you'll learn:\nThe CEO of You, Inc. mindset he uses to justify learning outside of work\nWhy test-driven development is about thinking, not testing\nThe one prompt trick that turns any AI into a real coding mentor\n\nThings to listen for:\n(00:00) Meet John Crickett\n(01:20) Studying AI decades before it was cool\n(06:00) From Quake bots to startup rejections\n(12:25) Why AI projects are getting scrapped before shipping\n(17:15) Can AI write the blueprint too\n(20:25) What teams skip when AI makes coding easy\n(25:50) Why fewer engineers are learning to code deeply\n(31:05) Why you can't learn coding from YouTube alone\n(37:50) How to prompt AI to actually mentor you\n(41:30) Why you're the CEO of your own career\n(48:05) Getting the customer back into the process\n(50:40) One skill...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/NGioKOB49N-k877AC-twbJMVPLxekfS0gRkeRbVCBog/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS81MTRi/MGJkNDYxN2ZlY2Rm/ODM2MjQyYjJmNGEy/NTY1Ny5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}