Okay, so I need to be real with myself about something.
I've been building a lot lately with AI in the tab next to my editor. And somewhere along the way, something shifted. I don't think it's good.
How it starts:
I'll begin a project feeling confident. I write some code. Actually understand what I'm doing. Then I hit a bug or need the next feature, and instead of sitting with the problem for five minutes, I just... describe it to Claude. Tab-tab-tab. Copy. Paste. Next.
It feels efficient. Except I'm not actually coding anymore. I'm describing what I want and waiting.
Then it gets worse.
After a few features, I realize I don't actually know what my own app does anymore. Not really. I can describe the vision, sure. But the logic? The way the pieces fit together? I'm fuzzy on it. And that's when I catch myself asking the AI "what should I do next?" instead of thinking.
That moment sucks. It's like my brain just... checked out.
Here's what I think is happening:
There's something people call "LLM brain poisoning." Sounds dramatic, but hear me out. Every time you skip the struggle — the debugging, the thinking, the figuring it out — your brain doesn't build that understanding. You're outsourcing the hard part. And the hard part is where learning lives.
Your problem-solving atrophies. Your memory gets worse. Critical thinking becomes... optional.
And the wild part? You feel more productive. You shipped three features today. But did you understand them? Or did the AI understand them and you just watched?
So what am I doing about it?
I'm forcing myself to code first. Sit with the problem. Get frustrated. Figure it out. Then if I want, I'll let AI review or clean it up.
Because the code I write myself — even the messy, inefficient code — that's my code. I know it. I own it. And next time I see that pattern, I won't need to ask.
That's the difference between using AI and letting AI use you.
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