How I Use AI Every Day Without Losing My Mind
It's still (mostly) up to us
Every week I meet someone who tells me they’ve lost all motivation to write software because “AI does everything now”. Or I see yet another post from a developer saying their attention span has collapsed, they feel exhausted by 4pm, and they’re wondering if they should leave the industry altogether.
I get it. The last two years have been a psychological earthquake for programmers. But here’s the funny thing. Anyone who knows me knows I’ve been highly critical of LLMs for programming. I’ve never believed in vibe coding. I don’t think these models are anywhere near good enough to replace us. And I absolutely don’t think we should lazily hand over our craft to a stochastic parrot with a GPU bill.
And yet, I’ve been using AI extensively for months now. And I’ve been… enjoying it.
I’m not going to claim I’m “10x more productive” (so cringe). Some things are faster, some things are slower, and a lot of things have simply shifted. I spend less time writing the initial code and more time reviewing, correcting, and steering. But overall, the work feels lighter. My brain isn’t fried at the end of the day. I actually have mental space left for architecture, quality, and strategy.
So why haven’t I fallen into the AI-induced malaise so many developers describe? Why am I not depressed, demotivated, or convinced that my job is meaningless?
For me, it comes down to three habits:
1. I stay inside the code. Every day.
My Neovim is always open next to my AI window. I never vibe code. I never let the model run wild. I’m constantly dipping in and out of the editor, making small manual changes, keeping my hands on the clay.
This keeps me engaged with the codebase. It keeps my skills sharp. And it makes my prompts dramatically better because I’m not guessing. I know exactly what I’m asking for and exactly what I want back.
AI becomes a collaborator, not a replacement. I stay in the loop, not above it.
2. I stay close to the customer.
This one predates AI by years. I used to be the classic ivory‑tower engineer who cared more about the elegance of the code than the people using the product. Thankfully, wiser leaders beat that out of me.
Now, when AI helps me ship something faster or cleaner, I picture the actual human who needs that fix or feature. I picture their relief, their smile, their “oh thank God”.
It’s hard to resent AI for “taking your craft” when you’re busy serving real people better than before.
3. I reject multitasking with religious zeal.
A programmer recently told me her company is obsessed with Conductor, this new tool that lets you run armies of agents in parallel. She’s miserable. She’s thinking of leaving the industry.
I looked at Conductor. It’s monstrous. It’s the worst idea I’ve seen in years.
We have mountains of research showing that multitasking destroys productivity, morale, and cognitive health. Yet tech executives keep pushing it because it looks futuristic. It’s the same logic that gave us open offices. Everyone knows they’re terrible, but they photograph well.
I refuse to play that game. I do one thing at a time. AI or no AI.
So where does this leave us?
I have my bad days. I roll my eyes at the Sam Altman hype machine. I’m allergic to the apocalyptic sermons coming out of Anthropic. But I’m also not blind. LLMs are a cool, powerful technology. They’re genuinely useful for a small subset of tasks, and some of those tasks happen to be part of software development.
The trick is not to surrender your craft, your attention, or your sense of purpose.
Stay in the code. Stay with the customer. Stay with one task at a time.
If you do that, AI doesn’t hollow you out. It just becomes another tool on your bench. A sharp one, sure, but still just a tool.
And you get to keep the part of programming that actually matters: the thinking, the judgment, the care, the craft.
That’s the part AI can’t touch.
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