I'm going to say something that probably won't be popular with developers:
AI didn't just make coding faster. It also made a lot of developers stop thinking.
And yes, I'm a developer too.
Before AI became part of our daily workflow, if we didn't know how something worked, we had to:
- Read the documentation.
- Search through GitHub issues.
- Debug the problem.
- Read someone else's code.
- Try something.
- Break it.
- Fix it.
- Understand why it broke.
Now?
"ChatGPT, fix this."
Copy → paste → run.
It works.
Ship it.
And that's where I think we're creating a problem.
The dangerous part isn't AI-generated code
AI-generated code isn't inherently bad.
Actually, it's incredibly useful.
I use AI for things like:
- Boilerplate
- Repetitive code
- Refactoring
- Explaining unfamiliar code
- Finding possible bugs
- Generating test cases
- Exploring different approaches
The problem starts when developers stop trying to understand the code they're asking AI to generate.
I've seen developers ask AI to write a complete feature, paste the result into their project, and then struggle to explain what the code actually does.
That's not productivity.
That's dependency.
"But why should I learn it if AI can do it?"
This is probably the biggest argument I'll get in the comments.
And honestly, it's a fair question.
If AI can write a CRUD API in seconds, why should I spend hours memorizing how to write one?
You shouldn't.
You don't need to memorize everything.
But there's a huge difference between:
"I don't remember how to implement this."
and
"I have no idea what this code is doing."
The first one is normal.
The second one is dangerous.
You can forget syntax.
You shouldn't forget how to think.
The junior developer problem
This gets even more interesting for junior developers.
A few years ago, struggling with a bug forced you to develop debugging skills.
Now, you can paste the error into an AI tool and get a solution almost immediately.
That's amazing.
But if you never experience the struggle, when do you actually develop the skill?
A junior developer who uses AI to learn can become extremely productive.
A junior developer who uses AI to avoid learning can become extremely dependent.
Same tool.
Completely different outcome.
Maybe "10x developer" is changing
I don't think the best developer in the AI era will be the person who can write the most code.
It might be the person who can:
Understand the problem → design the solution → use AI effectively → verify the result → take responsibility for it.
AI can generate 500 lines of code.
But it doesn't automatically mean those 500 lines belong in your production application.
You still have to know:
- Is this architecture appropriate?
- What happens at scale?
- What happens when the API fails?
- Is there a security issue?
- Is this query going to destroy the database?
- What happens with unexpected input?
- Is this actually maintainable?
That's still your responsibility.
So should developers stop using AI?
Absolutely not.
That would be ridiculous.
AI is probably one of the biggest productivity tools developers have ever received.
Use it.
Just don't let it replace the part of your brain that is supposed to understand the problem.
Because there's a difference between:
"AI helps me code."
and
"I can only code when AI tells me what to do."
The first is the future.
The second is a problem.
What do you think?
Has AI actually made developers more productive?
Or are we quietly creating a generation of developers who are becoming better at prompting than programming?
I'm genuinely interested in hearing both sides.
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