Why bother learning JavaScript now that we have generative AI?

We, at Piccalilli, launched JavaScript for Everyone this week and a response to that from parts of the community could be paraphrased as “why bother learning JavaScript deeply now we have generative AI and LLMs?”

It’s a good question! You’d be forgiven for feeling like there’s no point now, but this post should help you understand our position, along with our codified principles on AI.

Piccalilli stands for — and forever will stand for — human produced educational content for humans.

Our industry is changing, constantly. The AI hype cycle poses an increasing risk to job security, and despite every promise otherwise, the output from AI code generators is failing to live up to the hype.

Deep knowledge and skills have never been more important though. Understanding JavaScript deeply will mean you’ll be the one that’s called upon to oversee and course correct the AI-generated output. When the AI bubble does pop, having a deep knowledge of how JavaScript works will put you in a strong position to command more compensation and better terms because you’ll be in the strongest position to fix the mess left behind by AI.

If anything, I hope this post makes you feel better if the constant AI discourse is getting you down. I’ll have done my job today if that’s the case.

Just a quick reminder too: JavaScript for Everyone is £189 until October 28 when it goes back to the full price of £249.