"When you use the LLM you may be productive quicker, but I don't think you can argue that you are really learning anything"

Here's some code I threw together without even looking at yesterday: https://github.com/simonw/tools/blob/main/incomplete-json-pr... (notes here: https://simonwillison.net/2025/Mar/28/incomplete-json-pretty... )

Reading it now, here are the things it can teach me:

    :root {
      --primary-color: #3498db;
      --secondary-color: #2980b9;
      --background-color: #f9f9f9;
      --card-background: #ffffff;
      --text-color: #333333;
      --border-color: #e0e0e0;
    }
    body {
      font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Geneva, Verdana, sans-serif;
      line-height: 1.6;
      color: var(--text-color);
      background-color: var(--background-color);
      padding: 20px;

That's a very clean example of CSS variables, which I've not used before in my own projects. I'll probably use that pattern myself in the future.

    textarea:focus {
      outline: none;
      border-color: var(--primary-color);
      box-shadow: 0 0 0 2px rgba(52, 152, 219, 0.2);
    }

Really nice focus box shadow effect there, another one for me to tuck away for later.

        <button id="clearButton">
          <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round">
            <rect x="3" y="3" width="18" height="18" rx="2" ry="2"></rect>
            <line x1="9" y1="9" x2="15" y2="15"></line>
            <line x1="15" y1="9" x2="9" y2="15"></line>
          </svg>
          Clear
        </button>

It honestly wouldn't have crossed my mind that embedding a tiny SVG inline inside a button could work that well for simple icons.

      // Copy to clipboard functionality
      copyButton.addEventListener('click', function() {
        const textToCopy = outputJson.textContent;
        
        navigator.clipboard.writeText(textToCopy).then(function() {
          // Success feedback
          copyButton.classList.add('copy-success');
          copyButton.textContent = ' Copied!';
          
          setTimeout(function() {
            copyButton.classList.remove('copy-success');
            copyButton.innerHTML = '<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="14" height="14" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"><rect x="9" y="9" width="13" height="13" rx="2" ry="2"></rect><path d="M5 15H4a2 2 0 0 1-2-2V4a2 2 0 0 1 2-2h9a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v1"></path></svg> Copy to Clipboard';
          }, 2000);
        });
      });

Very clean example of clipboard interaction using navigator.clipboard.writeText

And the final chunk of code on the page is a very pleasing implementation of a simple character-by-character non-validating JSON parser which indents as it goes: https://github.com/simonw/tools/blob/1b9ce52d23c1335777cfedf...

That's half a dozen little tricks I've learned from just one tiny LLM project which I only spent a few minutes on.

My point here is that if you actively want to learn things, LLMs are an extraordinary gift.

Exactly! I learn all kinds of things besides coding-related things, so I don't see how it's any different. ChatGPT 4o does an especially good job of walking thru the generated code to explain what it is doing. And, you can always ask for further clarification. If a coder is generating code but not learning anything, they are either doing something very mundane or they are being lazy and just copy/pasting without any thought--which is also a little dangerous, honestly.