Yesterday, I hit the rate limits on all my AI subscriptions.
Kimi K2. Claude Pro. Copilot.
I was blocked. For two hours.
I was just sitting there, staring at the message in Copilot CLI… wondering what to do next.
Do I:
- Buy extra credits? Upgrade my plans to some “pro max” tier
- Or just code by myself like I used to?
First option = more money. And honestly, I wasn’t ready to invest more.
Second option = free, but let’s be real… slower. More friction. All the “boring” parts: syntax, class declarations, wiring things together.
Still, I chose to code on my own.
And weirdly… I was excited.
I hadn’t done that in weeks. It felt like a long time.
But wow — I didn’t expect it to be that challenging.
I was working on a small feature: refactoring a top bar and customizing a greeting based on time (Good morning / Good evening, etc.).
Simple, right?
Yet Kotlin syntax didn’t come instantly. I had to pause on basic things — const, class declarations… stuff that used to be automatic.
That was the first wall.
Then came the second one: thinking in terms of logic.
I got so used to AI proposing the logic and me just reviewing it… that building it myself didn’t click right away.
I had to slow down. Think step by step. Rebuild that flow.
And that’s when something interesting happened.
I started enjoying it. A lot.
It took me back to the good old days, when I would build features end-to-end on my own.
There’s a different kind of satisfaction when you build something yourself vs delegating it to AI.
When I use AI, usually:
→ I ask for a plan based on brainstorming
→ I validate it
→ It implements
When I code myself:
→ I am the plan
→ I structure the thinking
→ I solve the problems in real time
It’s slower, yes. But it’s deeper.
You feel the decisions. You understand deeply the “why” not just the “what”.
Reviewing AI-generated code is not the same as writing it.
When you write it, the learning sticks differently.
Small takeaway from this experience: I’m going to keep at least 1 hour per week where I turn off AI completely and just code.
Not because AI is bad. It’s incredibly powerful and life changing.
But because I don’t want to lose that muscle. Also, I miss that sense of full ownership.
Curious — has anyone else felt this?
Who’s in? Anyone want to join me on this challenge?
👉 You can also read this article on my website.
Top comments (1)
😄i literaly went through this just recently. Decided to put Ai down for a while and initialy it felt like i had forgotten everything but it slowly came back to me. Went a full day coding without Ai. I enjoyed it.