Is AI really making our lives better?
Yes.
I can do so much more. AI handles the busywork, and suddenly I have free time again. I can ask it any dumb question that pops into my head, and I have thousands of them every day. It feels like a dream. Then I think about what used to make my brain happy.
Programming.
It wasn’t love at first sight. Eventually it became my life. Building small programs that did something clever felt good. Learning new tools, picking up better practices, writing about them online. It felt like I was growing. As a professional. As a person.
That’s gone.
I don’t enjoy writing code by hand anymore. I know how slow it is. I can’t remember the last time I was in the zone. Before, I needed the right music to get into the right headspace. Now I don’t listen to anything while I work.
The old superpowers are gone. AI wiped them out. I can still write programs in a bunch of languages and work across different stacks, but so can an 11-year-old with a chat window open.
Career-wise, AI wrecked me. It took my sense of pride and made me lazier. It gave me new capabilities and took away the feeling of having earned them.