I haven't blindly jumped on the AI hype train. But I'm no hater either.
AI is here to stay. That's why I've tried AI to offload tasks while coding.
But after a few weeks, I was so dependent I couldn't write a simple LINQ query by hand.
So I decided to stop relying too much on AI and adopted this one rule:
Use AI outside my IDE or editor.
When I'm coding, I like to think I'm a surgeon in an operating room, and AI is my assistant doctor. They hand me tools and monitor my patient, but I'm always in charge.
How to be always in charge of AI
To stay in control, I never let AI into my editor. I use it in a browser tab.
It might seem slower or old-school. Sure!
But it forces me to decompose my problem and extract relevant code for AI.
And once I have an answer, it forces me to make it work on my side.
At least, I know if the output actually works.
Just like code you find on StackOverflow or anywhere else online, don't use what AI gives you if you don't understand what it's doing.
Don't let AI touch your code directly either.
AI is faster at generating code than us. No doubt! But being a good coder isn't about typing fast. It's about estimation, collaboration, and many more skills I've included in Street-Smart Coding—The roadmap I wish I had when I was starting out.
Top comments (4)
I had this really bad teacher at university, that he however made me learn something really important. I remember one thing he said that resounded with me: "Never use anything you don't understand."
As you can see, that sentence is still totally current nowadays.
Baltasar, it's more accurate and relevant than ever...when things break, we can't simply say "AI did that!"
The absence of friction is what makes it very seductive but also prevents from learning.
Just like since when we all have a GPS in the car, we don't know how to drive a car across the land anymore. We just know how to use the GPS.
There is a reason why at school, the teacher teach us A, then we think we understand A, then she forces us to do a small exercice about A, then we realize actually we didn't understand A that well, then we make the cognitive effort, and actually learn A.
Your one rule reintroduces friction and that makes a lot of sense
Hey I didn't think about it from the friction perspective. Thanks for sharing it.