How to enjoy programming again
If you ask any professional programmer if they have written a single line of code by hand in the last 3 months, most probably they will answer NO. I don't count in this simple rewrites of the AI generated slop, but real-world problem solving, from writting tests to performant implementation for those tests to pass.
Talking to other developers, most of them have forget to write simple 'for' loop. Programming as a craft has changed so drastically, but the systems we operate in have remained the same. Web applications are still vulnerable to XSS attacks, passwords are still required to be hashed before saving, race conditions are still real. What does it mean to be a programmer anymore?
Your soul wants challenges
AI has saved me countless hours of not so exciting work, like debugging css styles, updating translations, helping in project configuration setup etc. Suddendly, I had extra few hours to spare each day to read Twitter. My feed, like yours, is full of posts how awesome new Claude Code is. It can organize folders and arrange calendars. You can now start Claude with phone, from your favorite toilet seat, and let him cook for you.
In all of that flood of informations, somewhere along the way, you just became a ghost writter, somebody who has no proud in their work, cheap labourer. It does not matter anymore if you can type 150 words per minute or write beautiful recursion, what it matters is how fast you can prompt your way through the tickets and call it a day.
Fall in love with the craft again
IDE - programmer's window to the world
Programmers spend most of their day in IDE. For majority, that is Visual Studio or Cursor. Those tools have become so powerful that you end up just pressing Tab all day long, and sometimes review the output if you still have spare brain power. I love exploring new options and one of them is Neovim. Having cool developer environment with full control of customization, to make it a beautiful window to the digital world, was so eye opening experience. After learning VIM motions, I started to feel like a professional again.
Try disabling AI automplete from time to time, just for your brain's sake. Nobody stops you to verify changes with Claude and improve on your inital base.
Writting
This one is so underrated. Translating ideas into words gives them meaning. Remember to disable AI automplete when trying to express yourself. Having bad grammer is fine, people just want to read real human thoughts anyway. Every developer should have a dairy, pure Notes app is enough. I like to put in there everything I did during the day, what new stuff I have learned, what new problems I encountered and their solutions. After a few months, I will go through these notes and always feel kind of surprised how many gold nuggets there are.
AI can help with AI fatigue - What??
If I had to setup Neovim and Tmux for scratch, I would most probably came up with an excuse. Having Claude guide me, offering of the shelf solutions and fixing version mismatches, definetly helps to keep the flow up and running. The key is to decide when AI is really needed and when it is a fun killer.
Improve random parts of codebase on old projects
Opening project that is 2 years old to reflect on your current position really helps in dealing with imposture syndrome. Fixing small part of that codebase on weekends without AI at first, can be such a cool trick to boost your mood. No heavy refactors, just one test or one function that will improve the codebase 0.0001%. AI can also help to verify that this is the best solution, so you can learn a cool new typescript trick every weekend. Trust me, over the years, this small habit is a game changer.
Learn new skill
So you are a backend developer that is not so strong in DevOps. Good news, try to setup a Node.js server on Hetzner VPS, make it secure enough with the help of AI, create Docker file for easier deploy. After that, you heard you can improve server perfomance by adding caching layer with Redis. Brick by brick, this can end up in you switching career to much better paid position as DevOps engineer. Maybe this can be your passion without you ever knowing. Give everything a shot, especially in this new AI era.
Summary
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Published on March 29, 2026