Do we still need to understand the code we produce when AIs are seemingly able to solve problems way faster than any developer? Why should we still care about learning anything other than using AIs?

We should not stop using tools to solve our problems, but tools don't just affect the qualities of the solution, they also affect us. Among other things they affect our ability to learn. To be effective, developers and architects should know enough about the psychology of learning to avoid throwing out the proverbial baby when adopting any new tool. Not just AI.

This talk will give you a vocabulary and framework for discussing human learning in the context of software development. We'll do this by exploring three central themes:

• What types of problems are best explored by human learning.
• How processes, tools and the code we write affect our ability to learn and solve problems.
• Practices we can use to avoid diminishing our ability learn (especially when using AI).

We'll explore topics like: tacit and explicit knowledge, why folk psychology often fails, Cognitive Load Theory, and the effects of cognitive offloading.