I miss the deep dives. I make time for them again. A month or two ago, I was working on a really complex problem where I relied way too much on AI, and that reliance kept my thinking about the problem relatively shallow, which meant that while I understood the big picture of the problem, I didn't really understand the intricacies. And the AI didn't either; I must have wasted about a week just trying to get the AI to solve it.
Eventually, I switched. I stopped using the AI in my IDE, and instead used a standalone Copilot app that I had to actually explain the problem. That forced me to understand it, and that helped me solve it. It demoted the AI to an interactive rubber duck (which is a great use for AI). That moment when I finally started to understand the real problem, that was great. That's the stuff I love about this work, and I won't let the AI take that away from me again.
Eventually, I switched. I stopped using the AI in my IDE, and instead used a standalone Copilot app that I had to actually explain the problem. That forced me to understand it, and that helped me solve it. It demoted the AI to an interactive rubber duck (which is a great use for AI). That moment when I finally started to understand the real problem, that was great. That's the stuff I love about this work, and I won't let the AI take that away from me again.