I still write most things myself. So far, Copilot has been very unreliable with what I’m working on and it often costs more time than it saves. I mostly use it for one-off regex or json stuff.

As far as Python goes, I think it depends on your goal. If you’re just trying to get something quick done, you can probably use an LLM. If you’re trying to learn something new and get a new skill, I think it’s worth going through it on your own. The examples might be easy for the LLM, but those are building blocks you’ll want so you can understand more complex things that the LLM might trip on.

I would also say, don’t try to memorize everything. You’ll always have access to reference material, LLM or not. So it’s more about understanding and the concepts and building blocks, not about memorizing the exact way a specific thing is done in the book.

I went through Automate the Boring Stuff several years ago. I went through the Excel stuff, but didn’t really commit it to memory. I just knew a year later that Python could solve my problem when it came up, and was able to find the stuff I needed and put it together. It also gave me some ideas on stuff I could do that I probably wouldn’t have thought to automate otherwise. So going though it can help get your brain asking the right questions, even if you ultimately use an LLM down the road. It will also help you write better prompts.