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One Month Without AI

blog.bustikiller.com9 points4 comments
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A developer recounts banning AI contributions for a personal FOSS project but then falling deeply into AI-assisted coding at work. What began with enabling enhanced autocomplete in VSCode and trying code-generation models quickly became an addiction: asking agents to write tests and implement Jira tickets, letting AI co-sign commits, and even connecting agents to Jira via ACLI to work in separate git worktrees. The workflow multiplied PRs and token costs, produced long AI-written PR descriptions, and eroded domain knowledge. Tests and TDD were hollowed out as AI authored both tests and code, reviewers were forced into babysitting, and the author found many AI outputs low quality, inconsistent, or stalled - once burning $30 in tokens for no progress. The result was exhaustion, loss of control, and humility when a reviewer exposed that an AI-generated test failed to validate the intended behavior.

The author stopped using AI for a month, returned to strict TDD, tiny focused PRs, and two-line descriptions, and regained understanding, confidence, and the ability to justify every change in code review. The experience restored enjoyment of programming, improved incident response, and reinforced that overreliance on opaque tooling reduces an engineer’s real value. The takeaway: recognize dependency on AI, refuse habitual delegation of core skills, and reclaim control to remain a competent, accountable developer.

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