everyone keeps saying AI is making us dumber. people panic about ChatGPT and Claude doing our thinking for us. but honestly, i think we’re worried about the wrong thing.
the real question is simple: are you using AI as a crutch or as a tool? because there’s a huge difference between the two.
remember calculators?
people said calculators would destroy our math skills. and yeah, most of us can’t do long division anymore. but did that actually matter?
calculators freed us from boring arithmetic. we could finally focus on understanding what the math actually means. same thing’s happening with AI now.
memorizing syntax is pointless. understanding how systems work and solving real problems — that’s what counts.
the wrong way to use AI
here’s the problem: copy-pasting AI code without reading it. taking every suggestion without thinking. using it to skip learning basics.
i’ve watched people paste errors into ChatGPT, copy whatever it says, and move on. they never learn what broke or why. that is making you worse — not the AI itself, but how you’re using it.
how i actually use it
i treat AI like a coding buddy. i figure out what i want to build, get help writing it, then review everything. AI writes the boring stuff. i handle the thinking and architecture.
good developers get faster with AI. bad developers just make mistakes quicker. the tool makes you more of what you already are.
what matters now
nobody cares if you can remember every function name. what matters is understanding how things fit together, making good choices, and building stuff people need.
AI gives you time for the important work. less time fixing typos, more time designing better solutions. less boilerplate, more actual problem solving.
the winners won’t be people who avoid AI. they’ll be the ones who learn when to use it and when to think hard on their own.
use AI to move faster. just don’t forget to think about what you’re building and why.