AI is cool. You're cool. But using it for everything? Not cool.
You used to be the person who wrote code. Now, you're the person who copies and pastes it from ChatGPT, only to pray that it doesn't destroy your production environment. That’s not coding. That’s outsourcing your brain.
But hey, the AI hype train is rolling, and who can blame you? It’s efficient, right? Autocompletion here, boilerplate there, entire functions written for you while you sip your overpriced coffee. Feels like a cheat code for life.
Except here’s the problem: You’re no longer a developer. You’re a “prompt engineer” — a fancy title for someone who can ask the right questions and hit enter. Congratulations, I guess?
The Dangers of Being a Lazy Developer
Remember when you actually understood your code? When you could write a recursive function without Googling it? Now, you’re just pasting whatever ChatGPT threw at you and praying it doesn’t break. That’s not development; that’s playing roulette with your production environment.
The worst part? When something goes wrong, you’re stuck trying to reverse-engineer code that you didn’t even write. Good luck with that late-night bug fix. Spoiler alert: it’s not going to be fun.
Skill Atrophy Is Real
Coding is a craft. You don't get better by sitting on your hands and letting AI do the work. Sure, you can churn out code faster, but can you really understand it? Can you fix it when it goes wrong? Or are you just pretending to know what you’re doing?
If you keep letting AI take the wheel, your brain is going to get as rusty as a car left out in the rain. That syntax you used to know by heart? Gone. That logic you could easily piece together? Also gone. You’re basically watching someone else lift weights while you applaud them from the couch.
AI Isn't Your Partner in Crime
Let’s be clear: the AI isn’t your partner. It’s your ghostwriter. And while ghostwriters are fine for celebrity autobiographies, they suck when you’re trying to build a reliable, secure system. You’re not pair programming. You’re just letting an algorithm guess your next move while you pretend to be the brains of the operation.
Sure, it feels productive in the moment. But at what cost? You’re skipping over the part where you actually grow as a developer. AI is a tool, not a substitute for your brain. When you let it run the show, you’re outsourcing your learning. And that’s the opposite of development.
The Problem with AI’s “Wisdom”
Here’s a fun little tidbit: AI is trained on everything. Which means it's pulling code from forums, outdated Stack Overflow answers, and random GitHub repos where someone thought it was a good idea to hardcode passwords. It suggests solutions with confidence, but that doesn’t mean it’s right, secure, or even remotely efficient.
You’re putting your faith in something that barely understands the context of what you’re doing. AI is fine for the occasional suggestion, but it’s your job to spot the flaws. And if you can’t tell the difference between a solid solution and a half-baked hack, that’s not the AI’s fault. That’s your lack of understanding.
The Bottom Line: Think First, Prompt Later
Use AI. Really, do it. It’s great for brainstorming, it’s fantastic for getting out of the occasional coding rut, and it’s a time-saver when you need to handle repetitive tasks. But never let it be a crutch.
The real skill of a developer is the ability to read code, understand it, and improve it. It’s about writing solutions, not just asking for them. The real flex isn’t “Look what the AI wrote.”
The real flex is “I made this better than what the AI gave me.”
In the end, the future isn’t AI vs developers. It’s AI assisted developers vs. AI dependent developers. One group will continue to learn and adapt. The other will be stuck copying and pasting until they’re replaced by the very AI they trust too much.
So, think first, then prompt. Because, let's face it, you are the one who should be in control here.