AI Programming FAQ

FAQ - Programming with AI Tools

What’s the best AI tool for coding?

If you’re comfortable with Linux and want the best, Claude Code is the answer. If you can afford it, get it. This isn’t the place to cheap out - especially for commercial work. Want something lighter? Copilot is fantastic for suggestions, like having a smart friend looking over your shoulder. Cursor will do more of the heavy lifting. But Claude Code? It’ll do ALL the programming while you sip coffee and pretend you wrote it yourself.

How do I start integrating AI tools into my programming workflow?

Use my guide. Seriously, use it. It’ll save you from the thousand tiny deaths of discovering each pitfall yourself. The biggest mistake? People use AI like it’s a fancy autocomplete when it could be building large scale systems. Don’t assume it can’t do something. Shoot for the moon. The guide covers all the face-palm moments so you can skip straight to the good parts. Also, use AI to learn AI programming. “Hey Claude, how do I do X?” Boom. Personalized answer in seconds. Just don’t stop asking questions.

How do I stay current with AI tool updates?

Create a deep research prompt that’s your personal AI news butler. Have it serve you exactly what you need to know, nothing more. Consider AI news from TikTok, YouTube, Substack, and LinkedIn, but don’t drown in the noise. Conventions and meetups can be fab. Remember that AI training data is up to 18 months old, so ask for current info and don’t let it gaslight you. They’re trained from the past, but building the future.

What projects can AI coding tools handle?

Everything. No, really - everything. I have a chart that proves it. Documentation? Check. System admin? Check. Security audits? Check. Adding a feature you’ve been putting off because it’s too complex? Double check. Stop treating AI like an intern who can only fetch coffee and fix typos. It’s more like having a savant who can code in 50 languages but frequently forgets what year it is.

But it specializes in anything where there is a clear spec or where you can get it to make a clear spec. If you don’t really know what you want, that can slow things down. But AI is also fantastic for research and for helping you to make design decisions.

What assumptions should I make about AI’s capabilities?

Assume AI can do everything. Then dial it back only when reality slaps you. This isn’t toxic positivity - it’s strategic optimism. Most people assume AI can’t do things because they tried once with a bad prompt on a Tuesday. Wrong approach. Start with “AI can definitely do this” and work backwards. You’ll be shocked how often you’re right. The biggest limitation isn’t the technology; it’s your imagination having been beaten down by years of disappointing software.

Why do people underestimate AI when they see it make stupid mistakes?

Because AI breaks our brains by being genius and moron simultaneously. When Bob from accounting forgets how to PDF, you know he can’t build rockets. That’s human consistency. But AI? It’ll solve problems that stumped your entire team, then try to import a library it just hallucinated. It’s an idiot savant where both words matter equally. People see it fail at counting letters and think “this thing’s useless,” missing that the same system can architect your entire infrastructure. Your human pattern-matching is lying to you. With humans, stupidity in one area sometimes predicts stupidity in others. With AI, there’s zero correlation. Judge it by its best, not its worst, because unlike humans, those two things live in completely different universes. Don’t judge alien intelligence with human rules.

If you haven’t caught AI doing something stupid recently, you’re not paying attention. That’s not a bug - that’s your actual job now. You’re not a programmer anymore; you’re a very technical babysitter with commit privileges.

What are the biggest pitfalls when using AI coding tools?

Trust but verify. Have AI write test suites, then test those tests, then you need to test manually because paranoia is your friend. Feel free to review the code yourself (VS Code side-by-side diff works), but it’s shocking how quickly that gets old. In the end you learn to trust the AI code, because it works so often. As long as it passes the test suites that you had it make, that proves the code is working. If you then run into performance issues or UI issues, improve your tests using AI.

How do I ensure AI-generated code is maintainable?

Tell it what you want like you’re ordering at a very literal restaurant. Then have AI review the code that it just wrote. Self review would be ludicrous to do with a human, but it can work just fine for AI. Maybe have a different AI session do the reviewing if you want to be paranoid about it. And feel free to review the code yourself, but it’s shocking how quickly that gets old. In the end you may learn to trust the AI code, because it just works so often. It’s all about quality test suites.

What’s the difference between web AI and an AI coding agent?

Web page coding doesn’t count. There’s a world of difference between using an AI webpage (Gemini, Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, Copilot) to do coding for you compared to an actual AI coding agent with a tight ‘test->fix’ testing loop. If you’re actually writing code, using a webpage for that is like enjoying the taste of a crumb, where an agentic tool like Claude Code is an entire mind-blowing gourmet cake.

How do I measure productivity gains from AI tools?

JIRA with story points - boring but effective. Measure before and after like you’re on a coding diet. But also, just ask the developer. They’ll either be giggling with joy at their new superpowers or quietly sobbing into their keyboard. Make sure someone on the team is the AI expert other can go to, or have an expert help out short term. Without proper support, people might give up right before the breakthrough moment.

How do I integrate AI tools into team workflows?

Shared standards or shared chaos - pick one. Get everyone using the same CLAUDE.md file (or equivalent) that auto-loads in every project. Pick your formatting religion - Python Black, CamelCase, whatever - just pick ONE. Make sure everyone’s using the same tools, not whatever their favorite tech influencer recommended this week. Most importantly: the whole team needs to embrace AI like it’s 1999 and we just discovered the internet. Teams that ship 10x faster will eat the lunch of teams still arguing about whether AI is “real programming.”

How do I lead an AI transformation in my organization?

Get an AI expert who’s actually done transformations. (Yes, I’m pointing at myself here.) But seriously, you need someone who’s been in the trenches, not someone who watched a TED talk. Then iterate like crazy - nobody nails a transformation on the first try. Mix real transformation best practices with actual AI know-how, and most importantly, don’t let politics and egos turn your rocket ship into a committee meeting. Reality-based improvements beat corporate theater every time.

Who should champion AI in our organization?

Every company needs AI champions - real ones, not Ted from IT who asked ChatGPT for a recipe once. If you are an AI whisper, you are an expert at every technology, including AI. So long as the champions are eternally curious and pushing to expand the envelope, it should work out. Keep in mind, even the champions need champions. With the combination of AI and potentially Julian Cash consulting, there should never be an unanswered question.

How should employees approach AI adoption?

Everyone should be pushing the envelope constantly. Found something AI can’t do? Great! Talk to your AI champion about it. They’ll probably show you three ways it actually CAN do it, you just asked wrong. This new world is about knowing the real boundaries, not the imagined ones. Keep pushing, keep testing, keep annoying AI and your AI champion with questions. That’s literally how progress happens.

What’s the key to job security in an AI world?

Learn to milk AI for all it’s worth. Seriously, squeeze that digital cow dry. The people who’ll thrive aren’t the ones fighting AI or the ones hiding from it. They’re the ones who become AI whisperers, who know every trick, every workaround, every way to make it dance. Being the person who can make AI do backflips while everyone else is still teaching it to sit? That’s not just job security - that’s becoming indispensable. Your new skill isn’t coding or designing or writing. It’s being an AI puppet master.

What’s next?

Ready to go deeper? The Claude Code Manual has everything you need to get started. If you’re leading a team and want expert guidance, let’s talk.