AI is making me dumb • Hacker News Board

Re: AI is making me dumb

#11

Post by Rooster61 » Thu, May 14, 2026, 6:47 PM UTC

I can't relate that much to this. Every time I use AI to write code, I'm constantly fighting a feeling on the back of my neck that I need to look over everything it has done and supplement/alter it with my own code. That ick feeling counteracts the dopamine hit of having a working app after a few minutes of vibe coding, and I don't think that's going anywhere anytime soon.

That said, I have experience. I could absolutely see myself falling into this as a junior or even mid level dev. I'd no doubt not feel that feeling on my neck if it wasn't scarred from code review lashings early in my career by knowledgeable mentors.

Re: AI is making me dumb

#12

Post by ge96 » Thu, May 14, 2026, 6:47 PM UTC

Quarrelsome wrote: post #8

Is it tho? I get paid more these days to write less code. Is it dumb to be paid more/do more, have more oversight and deal less with the minutia? Im still concerned enough about the specifics to show concern about background refresh tokens silently failing in OAuth in a mission critical real-time system. Im not coding it, but im still thinking it. That's the important part, ain't it? Is it dumb or just clever delegat…

Me personally if I had the money to get out of dev I would just not fun anymore if you HAVE to use AI to code instead of doing it yourself. That's the name of the game, velocity.

I like making things myself, I have self-navigating robotics projects I do on my own time, but I'm not gonna use an AI to do it for me, the joy I get is figuring it out myself.

I will use AI if I'm stuck on something or need a specific algo written that I've spent enough time on and couldn't figure out.

Re: AI is making me dumb

#13

Post by steezeburger » Thu, May 14, 2026, 6:48 PM UTC

pton_xd wrote: post #6

We'll just move to a higher level of abstraction; thinking will be like efficiently coding in assembly, no longer necessary in today's world.

I've been thinking a lot about the new primitives and paradigms we'll see.

Re: AI is making me dumb

#14

Post by malicka » Thu, May 14, 2026, 6:49 PM UTC

Quarrelsome wrote: post #8

Is it tho? I get paid more these days to write less code. Is it dumb to be paid more/do more, have more oversight and deal less with the minutia? Im still concerned enough about the specifics to show concern about background refresh tokens silently failing in OAuth in a mission critical real-time system. Im not coding it, but im still thinking it. That's the important part, ain't it? Is it dumb or just clever delegat…

No, not really. You know what to think about because you were trained to by coding through the problem by hand. If you stop doing that, you stop learning the specifics of whatever problem domain you work with.

Re: AI is making me dumb

#15

Post by andrewstuart2 » Thu, May 14, 2026, 6:49 PM UTC

I was talking to some friends about this over drinks the other day. I feel it has the same effects as any drug (or behavior) that triggers dopamine. If I can get a dopamine hit for lower effort AI in 10 minutes, and maybe a tiny bit better of a hit doing it myself after a day, why would my brain go for anything but AI? Especially when my DIY muscles are a bit atrophied.

And of course the hedonic treadmill (if that's even valid any more, IDK) has reset the baseline so that anything less than the quick gratification feels like nothing. It makes the stuff I used to absolutely love feel like more of a chore compared to just cranking out features with code only an AI can love.

Re: AI is making me dumb

#16

Post by svnt » Thu, May 14, 2026, 6:50 PM UTC

pton_xd wrote: post #6

We'll just move to a higher level of abstraction; thinking will be like efficiently coding in assembly, no longer necessary in today's world.

A higher level of abstraction that doesn't require thinking? Did you mean to write thinking here?

Re: AI is making me dumb

#17

Post by marknutter » Thu, May 14, 2026, 6:50 PM UTC

Ai has been the best learning tool I have every used and it's not even close. I've learned more in the past year than I have in the past 5.

Re: AI is making me dumb

#18

Post by steezeburger » Thu, May 14, 2026, 6:50 PM UTC

Rooster61 wrote: post #11

I can't relate that much to this. Every time I use AI to write code, I'm constantly fighting a feeling on the back of my neck that I need to look over everything it has done and supplement/alter it with my own code. That ick feeling counteracts the dopamine hit of having a working app after a few minutes of vibe coding, and I don't think that's going anywhere anytime soon. That said, I have experience. I could absolu…

Experience is so so valuable right now. We can guide these agents super well, but I do fear for the juniors as you said. I would like to think I'd use the agents to dive deeper and learn faster. It was pretty rough piecing together solutions from Stack Overflow, various irc channels, Reddit, etc. But also, I cheated on my homework in college and didn't really review the answers, so not sure. Though I pursued programming out of interest and not just to complete a degree. Maybe it would have been different. In any case, I'm glad I came into the LLM era with a lot of experience and failures already.

Re: AI is making me dumb

#19

Post by Quarrelsome » Thu, May 14, 2026, 6:50 PM UTC

ge96 wrote: post #12

Quarrelsome wrote: post #8

Is it tho? I get paid more these days to write less code. Is it dumb to be paid more/do more, have more oversight and deal less with the minutia? Im still concerned enough about the specifics to show concern about background refresh tokens silently failing in OAuth in a mission critical real-time system. Im not coding it, but im still thinking it. That's the important part, ain't it? Is it dumb or just clever delegat…

Me personally if I had the money to get out of dev I would just not fun anymore if you HAVE to use AI to code instead of doing it yourself. That's the name of the game, velocity. I like making things myself, I have self-navigating robotics projects I do on my own time, but I'm not gonna use an AI to do it for me, the joy I get is figuring it out myself. I will use AI if I'm stuck on something or need a specific algo…

I just query about whether were talking about "dumb" or "fun". Agree with the latter but question the former.

Re: AI is making me dumb

#20

Post by Quarrelsome » Thu, May 14, 2026, 6:51 PM UTC

malicka wrote: post #14

Quarrelsome wrote: post #8

Is it tho? I get paid more these days to write less code. Is it dumb to be paid more/do more, have more oversight and deal less with the minutia? Im still concerned enough about the specifics to show concern about background refresh tokens silently failing in OAuth in a mission critical real-time system. Im not coding it, but im still thinking it. That's the important part, ain't it? Is it dumb or just clever delegat…

No, not really. You know what to think about because you were trained to by coding through the problem by hand. If you stop doing that, you stop learning the specifics of whatever problem domain you work with.

Sure, that's why we probably shouldn't start with vibe coding. Or otherwise at least learn formal methods to test against assumptions and doubly triply check vibe coded output.