--- title: ai is making you a bad programmer. | daily.dev description: AI coding assistants may diminish critical thinking and programming skills through overreliance, as studies show reduced problem-solving abilities compared to... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/ai-is-making-you-a-bad-programmer--tui5glmwm twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: ai is making you a bad programmer. | daily.dev og:description: AI coding assistants may diminish critical thinking and programming skills through overreliance, as studies show reduced problem-solving abilities compared to... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/ai-is-making-you-a-bad-programmer--tui5glmwm og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/tui5gLMwM.png og:image:alt: ai is making you a bad programmer. og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # ai is making you a bad programmer. **[Anthony Sistilli](https://daily.dev/sources/anthonysistilli)** · 8 min read · 54 upvotes · 10 comments ## Summary AI coding assistants may diminish critical thinking and programming skills through overreliance, as studies show reduced problem-solving abilities compared to manual coding. The impact depends on your goals: purists who view coding as a craft should minimize AI use to maintain deep expertise, while those focused on business outcomes can leverage AI as operators. Senior engineers have the advantage of choosing either path, though many resist AI due to ego or outdated perceptions. The key tension is between skill atrophy from AI dependence versus increased productivity for delivering business value. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@nubprogrammer** · 12 upvotes > any solutions for this? like i cant manual code my project with a low ahh deadline > but still dont want to lose my thinking skills **@kcib** · 2 upvotes > i do use ai if i want something fast and quick but yeah you might be right because before AI came i always research about designs, issues and ways to implement something but now just tell AI and you get it straight without much work, Just copy past and change some things. > But if you already have the knowledge i don't think AI will make you lose your critical thinking **@bonnieboni** · 2 upvotes > "Vibe coding is good but is not a place to stay" **Linus Tovards** **@daniel8000** · 1 upvotes > Summary says "many resist AI due to ego or outdated perceptions". Yeah, of course, this is the main reason :) **@dmitriylezhnev** · 1 upvotes > well, automatic transmission was an enabler to drive longer and safer. In fact, I think AI will factor out those who does not care about in-depth knowledge leaving us more room for success. People who wanted to get rich in IT will just be dragged towards vibe coding and so on. > > I think the shift is painful for us, the programmers, either way. We can't seat back and relax, we have to adapt knowing our strengths and make them stronger with AI. --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career), [#chatgpt](https://daily.dev/tags/chatgpt) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-is-making-you-a-bad-programmer--tui5glmwm) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"ai is making you a bad programmer.","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ai-is-making-you-a-bad-programmer--tui5glmwm","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/ai-is-making-you-a-bad-programmer--tui5glmwm"},"datePublished":"2025-12-22T21:08:16.432Z","dateModified":"2025-12-22T21:08:37.724Z","description":"AI coding assistants may diminish critical thinking and programming skills through overreliance, as studies show reduced problem-solving abilities compared to...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cb2goGhwhOQ/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cb2goGhwhOQ/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Anthony Sistilli","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Anthony Sistilli","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--2CR0UgDE--/f_auto/v1722586403/logos/anthonysistilli","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/anthonysistilli"},"commentCount":10,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/ai-is-making-you-a-bad-programmer--tui5glmwm","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":54},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":10}],"keywords":"ai,career,chatgpt","timeRequired":"PT8M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"ai is making you a bad programmer.","description":"AI coding assistants may diminish critical thinking and programming skills through overreliance, as studies show reduced problem-solving abilities compared to...","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cb2goGhwhOQ/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2025-12-22T21:08:16.432Z","duration":"PT8M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/tui5gLMwM","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/cb2goGhwhOQ"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Anthony Sistilli","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/anthonysistilli"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"ai is making you a bad programmer."}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/ai-is-making-you-a-bad-programmer--tui5glmwm","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"any solutions for this? like i cant manual code my project with a low ahh deadline\nbut still dont want to lose my thinking skills","datePublished":"2026-01-05T09:52:17.653Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/tui5gLMwM#c-0Eb68jQGR","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Atharv","url":"https://daily.dev/nubprogrammer","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--iKAhtmCU--/f_auto/v1760698008/avatars/avatar_EP7yoOu1w1OjIXSXdNYQq?_a=BAMAK+ZW0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":12}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"i do use ai if i want something fast and quick but yeah you might be right because before AI came i always research about designs, issues and ways to implement something but now just tell AI and you get it straight without much work, Just copy past and change some things.\nBut if you already have the knowledge i don’t think AI will make you lose your critical thinking","datePublished":"2026-01-08T07:24:24.243Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/tui5gLMwM#c-KzaGMRqSX","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Isaac Bright","url":"https://daily.dev/kcib","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/32621169?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"“Vibe coding is good but is not a place to stay” Linus Tovards","datePublished":"2026-01-16T07:02:30.772Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/tui5gLMwM#c-UttvNbpBl","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Mboni George","url":"https://daily.dev/bonnieboni","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--Y7cSx4cC--/f_auto/v1783679376/avatars/avatar_86i45FgMso7FgPmYePivk?_a=BAMAMicg0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Summary says “many resist AI due to ego or outdated perceptions”. Yeah, of course, this is the main reason :)","datePublished":"2026-01-16T09:41:47.418Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/tui5gLMwM#c-C1zZvqYfX","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel","url":"https://daily.dev/daniel8000","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--F_RltCZK--/f_auto/v1738746891/avatars/avatar_SOwG1kJqf6HK6TkGmZH45"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"well, automatic transmission was an enabler to drive longer and safer. In fact, I think AI will factor out those who does not care about in-depth knowledge leaving us more room for success. People who wanted to get rich in IT will just be dragged towards vibe coding and so on.\nI think the shift is painful for us, the programmers, either way. We can’t seat back and relax, we have to adapt knowing our strengths and make them stronger with AI.","datePublished":"2026-01-12T15:56:26.308Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/tui5gLMwM#c-7OsR6PEWL","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Dmitriy Lezhnev","url":"https://daily.dev/dmitriylezhnev","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocJVN86Tdnt60xxFSGgjdPe3Un-PqVxs13Xgt_zigukW1JEuudg4=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}}]} ```