I was talking to a friend (who’s pretty far from AI) the other day about how much AI has changed the way I work, and something I’ve been increasingly frustrated with.
Recently, I’ve been experimenting with Claude alongside Codex, and it’s honestly impressive how well these tools can understand the smallest UI details, sometimes thinking a few steps ahead of me. And it’s cool on one hand.
But I’ve noticed something about myself that concerns me.
The more I use these tools, the harder it becomes to just open a blank canvas and create something from scratch.
And I’m not afraid of AI replacing me. I’m afraid of getting so used to having it think alongside me that I slowly lose the ability to think creatively on my own.
I love AI. I love how much faster we can build, how easily we can explore ideas and turn them into something real.
But I think there’s something incredibly important about being able to come up with an idea entirely on your own, develop it, struggle with it, and eventually put something into the world that came from your own brain.
That ability needs to be exercised.
I genuinely think designers, engineers, and anyone doing work in tech should regularly make time to work without AI. Open a blank canvas, write code, sketch something, figure things out yourself.
Not because AI is bad, but because your brain still needs to do the work. Needs to exist and evolve.
The last thing I want is to become incredibly good at using tools and slowly forget how to create without them.
how my process and work style is changing