I tried coding with AI, I became lazy and stupid

Summary

I tried coding with AI, I became lazy and stupid# Around April 2025, my boss at $dayjob insisted we try AI tools for coding. It wasn't toxic pressure or anything like "20% of your code needs to be AI", just a concern from him that we could miss on something. I understand why he asked that and I don't blame him. We are in difficult economic period even for software, and we have salaries to pay. If AI can increase productivity or our margins, it should be at least put on the table of negotiations. I am not happy about this coming, but I get it. My personal stance of AI I have personal reasons to dislike LLMs. My partner lost their writing job due to chatGPT convincing their manager writers were now useless. A lot of artist friends struggle because of LLMs. We recently had an intern who lost her translator role due to LLMs. And even outside my personal experience, LLMs are based on stolen content, don't respect consent, waste huge amount of electricity and water, and are overall a new weapon for the capitalists in the class warfare. The other reason why I folded comes from a toxic relationship I built with my job when I became a developer. I detailed in a previous blog post how choosing this career came with very high stakes which triggered a shift in my brain that hasn't left me since: When I started web development seven years ago, I was in survival mode after years of low paying wages and unemployment. It had to work, and for it to work, I had to always learn more, read and listen about web development all the time, monitor the field, socialize as much as possible with my peers. This way, I would not get disposable and lose my job. I would build a network. I would be safe.— I, In a blog post from 2022 10 years and 3 burnouts later, one can tell this mindset, even if it worked out for a while, wasn't sane or desirable. I had managed to put aside this fear of being disposable, but LLMs triggered it back big time. What if AI vendors were right? What if a future company...