DEV Community: ayush

AI is making me weaker, mentally...

ayush — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 06:24:24 +0000

Today, I tried learning about OAuth 2 and multi-tenant architecture. Usually I will use an LLM for it, but for some reason I thought, why not try doing it the old-school way: reading articles, documentation, and Stack Overflow.

I couldn't. I simply couldn't read a 2-page article in one sitting. I couldn't focus, make sense of what's written, decode complex terms and diagrams, and gave up when I couldn't make sense of what I was reading for 10 minutes.

I gave up midway, switched to watching YouTube, and wasted hours. I keep a technical journal and tried articulating what's happening. Here is a raw snippet from it:

Test This:
Try to implement caching WITHOUT AI:
Can you? → Probably yes (after struggling 6 hours)
With AI? → Yes (after struggling 1 hour)
Difference: TIME, not ABILITY. 

About this part specifically, the issue is not with learning ability or time tradeoff per say, but rather endurance. When I use AI, I get answers in one place, I don't have to read tehnical articles, search multiple places etc. It becomes comparitvely easier and my mind doesn't get used to this feeling of feeling like an idiot, this uncomfortable creepy feeling of not understanding something, spending hours trying to understand something. 
I believe these situations build mental resistance and endurance, you force yourself to sit down stuff even if it feels hard and uncomfortable because it is the only way, you have to dissect internally complex topics, force yourself to piece information together and just get comfortable with the process. 

Imagine me in 2 years, if I were to continue with the same trajectory, my mind will never get used to this creepy and uncomfortable feeling of not understading stuff, piecing stuff together, dissecting it and just not having stuff served on a plate in general. 

As a junior, you may I am weaking my mental resistance and endurance. 
> Backend problems are DEEPER (you like this)
you said this with aligns perfectly with my point.

I fear continuing this path will make me hit the ceiling real fast. I remember before LLM, I had little to no choice but be uncomfortable and continue. I have stopped doing it altogether.

I would also like to point out that all the YouTube videos and guides are not pointing out this issue. Experienced developers already have that tolerance from years of grinding, but us freshers are in for a rude awakening and potential burnout if this continues.

Now, please advise what I can realistically do?

On one hand, I do need my first internship, and not using AI is making me feel like I would be left behind, but on the other I don't want to half-ass what I like.

Deployment Made me Realize why TTD is a thing....

ayush — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 13:16:25 +0000

Not a technical post, rather a section from my journal.

A Snippet from my technical journal

08/03/2026 18:31

Am in the process of deploying the 2nd iteration of my project and am now understanding why test driven development is a thing, per my limited experience.

When your project reaches deployment stage or rather you rush to it, you add a whole new set of issues to the process. So if you program is buggy in the first, it becomes (way not harder or complex, per say), but rather cumbersome and tiring.

You are battling on 2 fronts now, the deployment and the program itself.

Kept it raw for reasons.

Also, I have a few questions.

I will start writing test cases for my new projects and upcoming iterations, so how do decide what test cases to write and when to stop?
I have FOMO and Imposter Syndrome, so is render the right choice for deployment? Goal is to a paid internship.
Do you have a system or flow in place for Django projects to be deployed eventually specifically? Systems do help me immensely.

Created my first passion project.

ayush — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 15:49:21 +0000

Context

My passion for engineering, in general, was dying. Part of what coding fun for me was dying.

I didn't want to lose that part of me. So this project serves as the first small step towards it.

With my passion projects (I have a list of it), I plan on not worrying about interviews, over-engineering or imposter syndrome in general. Just building what I like, the way I like.

About The Project

It's a web extension aiming to improve dev.to reading experience by hiding distracting UI elements and adding a custom read aloud feature.

The first iteration simply adds an alert when accessing the site.

alert("Hello world from Dev.to Extension")

For this project, I plan on:

working in iterations.
learn as I need.
limit time spent (1 hour daily).

I still to learn JavaScript Basics, DOM Manipulation etc, so this is it for the day.

Check the github repo by clicking here.

Sample Image

First Django Deployment on Render...

ayush — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 07:02:32 +0000

Purposefully Deploying Faulty Code (FAFO Time)

Just deployed the iteration of ecom-backend project. I kept it faulty purposefully by:

Keeping ALLOWED_HOSTS = [].
Using SQLite, not PostgreSQL.
Keeping DEBUG = True.

Apart from the first one, none of them will break my code (I hope). I have seen people cry a river over deployment, so I will see what it is about.

First Error I Got

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'app'

No idea what this is about, but will see after the mid-day nap.

What I Realized via Deployment

I must learn about Computer Networking Basics. I have been delaying it for a while (college professors do play a role in this)
In engineering, once you get out of tutorial hell, things get messy real fast.
I must fix my perfecionist mindset. I am still in my school/college mindset that screams:

If you don't understand and remember a concept deeply, you fail.

Small Note

I, most likely, will post here multiple times a day, I set a 10-15 minute timer to journal stuff and not spiral. So, I planned on sharing it here and to maybe help others or get some feedback.

So you can expect, multiple post by me here, everyday ;)