But why does someone else delivering faster deprive you of the opportunity to learn these things anyway? Can't you just... not look at what they've done?
I will corroborate that AI and pressure even in hobby spaces (like game modding) to ship faster if only to preempt a crappier implementation from gaining traction is making it harder to feel motivated to make something because there’s no time to also enjoy the technical puzzle or to really pay attention to excellence in the details.
I’m not really lamenting a bygone era, just saying that the feeling of programming for a hobby has also changed and the parts that are fun don’t line up as well anymore, so I do less of it now.
Unless you mean your hobby is other people using your software, rather than programming for the sake of programming in the literal sense. In which case, yeah, sucks to be beaten by AI on all fronts at the same time.
This is true when you don't share it with others.
I don't share most things with others anymore, I just make things with LLMs, and then use them for myself. When I make something to share with others, I pay closer attention. But for myself, I don't really appreciate the process of learning so much, because that's how I end up stalling out and never finishing the project. Maybe it resulted in useful skills anyway, but it really sucks for my mental health.
For my case (modding games), yes, a big part of my reason for doing it vs. any other software project is experiencing others enjoying my work.
I also have projects I make for myself for personal practical reasons. In those cases very little has changed, because whether or not I use AI only affects me.