How AI Made Me a Better Developer (By Using It Less)
I turned off Copilot and became 10x more productive. Here is how.
I know what you’re thinking. “This guy turned off AI and claims to be more productive? Sure, grandpa.”
Hear me out.
The Problem
When I first got Copilot, I was hooked. It felt like having a senior dev pair-programming with me 24/7. Autocomplete everything. Accept, accept, accept.
But then I noticed something weird. I was accepting code I didn’t fully understand. Quick fixes that worked but I couldn’t explain why. My debugging skills were getting rusty because I’d just ask the AI to fix things.
I was becoming dependent. And dependency is the opposite of growth.
The Switch
I turned off Copilot in VSCode. Cold turkey.
The first week was painful. My fingers kept expecting suggestions that never came. But something interesting happened - I started actually reading documentation again. Thinking through problems before typing. Writing code I actually understood.
What I Use AI For Now
I haven’t abandoned AI completely. I use chat interfaces (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini) when:
- I’m genuinely stuck - After I’ve tried debugging myself for at least 30 minutes
- Learning new concepts - AI is great at explaining things in different ways
- Rubber duck debugging - Sometimes explaining the problem to AI helps me see the solution
- Code review - Getting a second opinion on architecture decisions
The key difference? It’s intentional. I’m choosing when to get help, not having it shoved into every keystroke.
The Results
- I understand my codebase better
- Debugging is faster because I know what my code does
- I write more maintainable code
- I learn new things instead of pattern-matching AI suggestions
Turns out, struggling a bit is how you actually learn. Who knew?
The Balance
I’m not anti-AI. I’m anti-dependency. Use AI as a tool, not a crutch. Keep your brain sharp. The best developers I know use AI strategically, not constantly.
Your future self will thank you when the AI is down and you still know how to code.