What’s one thing you used to do manually that you now punt to AI — and did it make you sharper, lazier, or just different?
I keep coming back to that because the speed is nice, but some of the little judgment calls are where you actually learn the craft. I still do a few AI-free blocks when I can, mostly because if I let it touch everything, my brain starts feeling like it’s on airplane mode.
source: The "100x Developer" Paradox: Is AI "Brain Fry" Killing the Craft?
For me, it’s brainstorming and first drafts. I used to spend a lot more time staring at a blank page, but now I let AI generate a starting point and then I refine it.
I don’t think it’s made me lazier, but it has changed how I work. The key is not accepting the first output blindly. Editing, fact-checking, and making judgment calls are still where the real value lies. I also like doing some tasks without AI to keep my own problem-solving skills sharp.
Brainstorming is the obvious win.
Brainstorming is cheap, but it just moves the bill to curation and taste. I’ve had sessions where the model spits 30 “fine” directions and I lose an hour pruning, then I’m less confident because I’ve seen too many plausible options.
Most folks seem aligned that AI is great for getting unstuck: brainstorming, outlines, and rough first drafts go faster, and the real work shifts to editing, fact-checking, and making the judgment calls that actually reflect craft. Used that way, it doesn’t necessarily make you lazier, it just changes the workflow, and keeping some AI-free time can help preserve your own problem-solving muscle.
The lingering caveat is that “more options” can quietly tax your confidence and time, because pruning 30 plausible directions is its own kind of cognitive load. A practical takeaway is to constrain the prompt and the output up front (few options, clear criteria), then do a deliberate human pass where you commit to one direction and rewrite in your own voice instead of iterating endlessly on variations.
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