The Meetup That Made Me Quit Meetups

Photo by charlesdeluvio on Unsplash

I went to a meetup the other day. That was my first mistake. My second mistake seems to be that I spoke to someone about programming. 

The result of the meetup is that I think I’m never going to go to a meetup again.

The Situation

I thought that meetup groups were good places to discuss programming and the technical issues of the day. I thought that speaking to smart people would yield interesting conversations and even improve my performance at work somewhat.

How wrong could I be?

At this particular meetup I saw two people talking, and they were discussing programming. Perfect! That’s something I know a thing or two about. 

The conversation discussed learning programming, and where resources might be found. The classics were brought up, Stack Overflow, YouTubers and the like. The more junior programmer in the conversation nodded along, taking notes and agreeing that TikTok is a great resource for programming tips. I felt that I could add something to the conversation, so I approached and said: 

“I don’t know why anyone in 2025 wouldn’t use AI if they’re learning programming”

Big mistake.

One of them immediately fired back: 

“AI makes up stuff. It’s bull*”

Now, I’m no stranger to people having strong opinions, but this wasn’t just disagreement. I felt complete dismissal. As the conversation continued on it became apparent that this wasn’t going to be two-way conversation and instead would be a demonstration of everything this guy knew to be wrong about AI in software development.

Apparently, because AI sometimes gets things wrong, it’s useless. Meanwhile, Stack Overflow is somehow the gold code standard. It’s out-of-date, conflicting and condescending answers is definitely the way to go and if you use Cursor you are some sort of idiot. The attitude and swearing seemed designed to put me in my box and ensure that I left the argument agreeing that AI is simply not good enough.

That didn’t happen.

AI as a Tool for Balance

Look, I get it. AI isn’t perfect. It hallucinates. It confidently tells you things that are wrong. But you know what else does that? Humans. Bad teachers. Misleading blog posts. The guy at the meetup who doesn’t actually know what he’s talking about but sounds convincing. The difference is, AI gives you contextual help. It explains things, refines answers based on your feedback, and doesn’t gate-keep knowledge behind a wall of RTFM responses.

The reality is, AI is a tool. A powerful one. 

The conversation around AI, even for juniors, should be balanced. It can speed up learning, provide explanations tailored to your level, and help you write code faster. You don’t replace critical thinking with AI; you enhance it.

Where Did It All Go Wrong?

The nuanced conversation about AI I wanted never happened. The arguments I gave that AI, while imperfect, can help coders were ignored. 

I felt dismissed. Shut down. Like I had walked into a tech debate where someone had already decided their opinion and wasn’t interested in a real discussion. 

You know what? It made me sad. It sucked the enthusiasm right out of me. Why bother trying to get involved with others at these meetings to be sneered at?

After all, the main talk at this event was about how completing LeetCode challenges can enhance your software development career (and I left halfway through that).

The whole experience ended up making me my time would have been better spent at home trying to fix one of those bugs that seemingly never gets fixed within our codebase.

So that’s what I’m going to do in the future. I’m not going to anymore of these events, partially because I hate being the smartest person in the room and partially because I hate wasting time.

Conclusion

So that’s it. I’m done with meetups. Maybe it’s just me, but if the whole point is to engage, exchange ideas, and help each other grow, what’s the point if the loudest shout you down?

I’ll stick to AI. At least it pretends to care.