Some time ago, I was randomly searching for mobile games that help you rest.

Not competitive games.
Not shooting games.
Just something calm, something I could play while my brain cools down.

Everyone knows Candy Crush, so I wanted something different. I started downloading a few random games, trying them out for a day or two, deleting most of them.

That was how I found Township.

At first, it felt perfect. You build a town, grow crops, upgrade factories, unlock new features. Very chill. Very satisfying.

But then you start noticing something.

A lot of things take time. Sometimes a lot of time. You start a building upgrade and it says “3 hours”. Another one says “5 hours”. And you are like… okay, I guess I will come back later.

Then the game introduces town credits.

With town credits, you do not have to wait.

You can finish buildings instantly.
You can unlock things faster.
You can move ahead very quickly.

And of course, town credits are expensive. Most of the time, you have to buy them with real money.

So now you have a choice.

Wait and actually play the game.
Or pay and skip the process.

And that got me thinking about how a lot of beginners are using AI to code today.

The pattern I started noticing

Around the same time, I was also talking to a few people I mentor on the side.

Smart people. Very motivated. Serious about getting into tech.

But I started noticing a pattern.

They were leaning heavily into AI for almost everything.

Not just for explanations or small help, but for writing whole features, fixing every error, even structuring projects they did not fully understand.

And when I asked simple questions like:

“Why did you write it this way?"
"What happens if this part fails?"
"Why does this state update work?”

There was usually a long pause.

Not because they were lazy.
But because they genuinely did not know.

The code worked, but the understanding was not there yet.

That is when the Township analogy really clicked for me.

The town credits problem

When you are new to programming, everything feels slow.

Setup takes time.
Errors make no sense.
Things break for reasons you cannot explain yet.

Then you discover Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Copilot.

You type:
“Build me a login form"
"Fix this error"
"Create this feature”

And suddenly, things work.

It feels exactly like using town credits.

You skip the waiting.
You skip the struggle.
You move fast.

But just like in Township, there is also a cost.

Sometimes it is money, because good AI tools are not free forever.
But more importantly, it is learning you are skipping.

What repetition actually teaches you

Here is the part people do not talk about enough.

When you play a level over and over again in a game, you start to understand the mechanics.

You learn:

Oh, this enemy always appears here.
This strategy does not work anymore.
If I save this resource now, it helps me later.

You stop panicking when things go wrong because you have seen similar situations before.

Coding works the same way.

When you fix the same type of bug multiple times, you start recognizing patterns.
When you write similar logic in different projects, it starts to feel natural.
When something breaks, you have ideas of where to look first.

That confidence only comes from repetition.

AI can remove that repetition. And when that happens, it also removes the chance to build intuition.

So you end up with code that works, but skills that are still loading.

The difference between using AI and avoiding thinking

I am not against AI at all.

I use it myself, a lot. It saves time, helps with refactoring, helps with documentation, and sometimes helps me think through problems.

But there is a big difference between:

Using AI to move faster
and
Using AI to avoid thinking

Beginners especially need to be careful here, because you are still building your mental model of how software works.

If that model is weak, everything becomes fragile later.

How beginners should use AI

So no, I do not think beginners should avoid AI completely.

That would be unrealistic and unnecessary.

But I do think beginners should be more intentional with how they use it.

Try first.
Break things.
Google.
Read docs.
Then ask AI to explain, guide, or review what you already tried.

Use it like town credits you earned, not like unlimited cheats.

Your goal is understanding, not just working code

At the end of the day, your goal is not just to build apps that work.

Your goal is to become a developer who understands why things work.

Because when things stop working, and they always do at some point, understanding is what saves you, not tools.

So yes, Claude coding is powerful. AI coding is powerful.

Just make sure it is helping you grow, not helping you skip growth.

Play the levels.
Learn the mechanics.
Build the intuition.

Then when you finally use the town credits, you will know exactly what you are skipping and why you can afford to skip it.

And that is a much better place to be.