--- title: The Slow and Quiet Cognitive Atrophy of a Modern... description: An engineer reflects on 'cognitive atrophy' - the gradual erosion of coding skills from over-relying on AI tools without reviewing or understanding generated... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/fh7f5yjaq twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The Slow and Quiet Cognitive Atrophy of a Modern Software Engineer | daily.dev og:description: An engineer reflects on 'cognitive atrophy' - the gradual erosion of coding skills from over-relying on AI tools without reviewing or understanding generated... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/fh7f5yjaq og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/FH7f5yjaQ.png og:image:alt: Post cover image 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. # The Slow and Quiet Cognitive Atrophy of a Modern Software Engineer **[Elmar Chavez](https://daily.dev/sources/bk85rjb2oxxid2lx2wi5y)** · [@elmarchavez](https://daily.dev/elmarchavez) · 87 upvotes · 29 comments ## Summary An engineer reflects on 'cognitive atrophy' - the gradual erosion of coding skills from over-relying on AI tools without reviewing or understanding generated code. The piece argues that the 'prompt, accept, repeat' workflow skips the thinking process, creates a false sense of trust as unreviewed AI code moves through PR reviews, and ultimately erodes ownership and accountability. The author shares personal habits to counter this, including daily coding challenges recorded on video, researching documentation before consulting AI, and catching AI suggesting deprecated methods. The conclusion advocates using AI as a complement rather than a substitute for thinking, emphasizing discipline and code ownership. ## 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. **@confidentcoding** · 11 upvotes > This is exactly the kind of loop and workflow that I also [warned against](https://daily.dev/posts/agentic-coding-is-a-trap-recently-featured-on-theo-gg-hackernews-fireship--h9ys4rtgp), and am actively trying to avoid for this reason. > > > And to your point about that perhaps you're just doing it incorrectly: this is a common narrative that needs to be dispelled for good: [It is not a skills issue](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fE0W9UGzZzk). > > > I am advocating for developers to look at them as a Delegation Layer. They're systems that sit right alongside your stack, and at this point, at every... **@ricktonoli** · 4 upvotes > I'm going to say something potentially controversial but the intention is just to play devils advocate. Why do we care about code so much? Should we not shift the thinking to care less about the code and more about the quality of the output, is it valuable and solves a problem, does it perform under stress, is it secure etc etc. So build a safety harness around the code generation that validates the output according to real world concerns, and even that could be AI of sorts if you think of it... > > Or am I totally wrong here? I don't know, I think the change is inevitable and we need to not... **@nosfair** · 3 upvotes > The danger isn't delegating coding to AI. It's delegating judgment to AI without noticing the difference. **@andradei** · 2 upvotes > I don't know about other professions, but programmers are converging at this same conclusion at a good pace, specially those who are passionate about programming. **@devmount** · 1 upvotes > Think first, prompt later. Thanks for this post. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Don’t just attend KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon, Merge Forward your experience\!](https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-just-attend-kubecon-cloudnativecon-merge-forward-your-experience--l0rpp73x8) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Announcing H2 2026 KCDs](https://daily.dev/posts/announcing-h2-2026-kcds-m96goajm1) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Two months of Open Community Groups](https://daily.dev/posts/two-months-of-open-community-groups-asf52zhbs) · CNCF · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-coding), [#code-review](https://daily.dev/tags/code-review) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/fh7f5yjaq) ```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":"DiscussionForumPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https://daily.dev/posts/fh7f5yjaq","headline":"The Slow and Quiet Cognitive Atrophy of a Modern Software Engineer","text":"Shared: The Slow and Quiet Cognitive Atrophy of a Modern Software Engineer","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/fh7f5yjaq","datePublished":"2026-09-15T14:48:00.595Z","dateModified":"2026-09-15T14:49:04.453Z","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Elmar Chavez","url":"https://daily.dev/elmarchavez","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--7PjH979T--/f_auto/v1780994221/avatars/avatar_bK85rJb2OXXID2LX2wi5y?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","description":"Full Stack Developer | Code Reviewer | Technical Writer | Open Source Contributor","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"EndorseAction"},"userInteractionCount":14590}},"image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--P4t4XyoV--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2001","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":87},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":29}],"sharedContent":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/4w1qUgim6"},"comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"This is exactly the kind of loop and workflow that I also warned against, and am actively trying to avoid for this reason.\nAnd to your point about that perhaps you’re just doing it incorrectly: this is a common narrative that needs to be dispelled for good: It is not a skills issue.\nI am advocating for developers to look at them as a Delegation Layer. They’re systems that sit right alongside your stack, and at this point, at every level in it, like a connective tissue that intersects at all points. I can delegate a spec, a function, a file, a whole feature set, an app, a debugging loop, etc… My day-to-day isn’t all that different, it’s just like having the “Ship’s Computer” that I can ping anytime I need something. I’m enjoying the benefits that a “smart” data processing pattern interpolator provides, but I’m not giving up any personal control or agency. My goal isn’t to go faster, nor is it to avoid coding, because coding isn’t drudgery or “below us” just because we have new code generation tools. It is a unique intersection of logic, math, problem-solving, critical thinking, planning, communication, and creativity.\nSome of my primary uses:\n\nBoilerplate sucks, and if you’ve written it millions of times…now you don’t have to.\nRefactors & migrations can be arduous and time consuming…now you have one of the most flexible and powerful data processing tools ever created.\nDebugging obtuse errors could have had you wasting hours on Google and S.O…now you have a deep search engine that can digest your exact context.\nLearning new languages and stacks can be intimidating…now you have a dynamic tutorial generator and interactive documentation chatbot to work through nuances and concepts with through Socratic methods.","datePublished":"2026-09-15T15:12:50.855Z","dateModified":"2026-09-15T15:17:35.216Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/FH7f5yjaQ#c-DG4YqSSHC","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Lars Faye | Confident Coding","url":"https://daily.dev/confidentcoding","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--OGZu5DEc--/f_auto/v1772569630/avatars/avatar_umWZ9aQAng34qk5aaJl2q?_a=BAMAMiiu0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":11}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I’m going to say something potentially controversial but the intention is just to play devils advocate. Why do we care about code so much? Should we not shift the thinking to care less about the code and more about the quality of the output, is it valuable and solves a problem, does it perform under stress, is it secure etc etc. So build a safety harness around the code generation that validates the output according to real world concerns, and even that could be AI of sorts if you think of it…\nOr am I totally wrong here? I don’t know, I think the change is inevitable and we need to not call it congnitive atrophy but rather cognitive shift?","datePublished":"2026-09-16T01:13:32.287Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/FH7f5yjaQ#c-ijpVgmHtU","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Rick Tonoli","url":"https://daily.dev/ricktonoli","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--1mKwVOZD--/f_auto/v1745813607/avatars/avatar_54gVqSdbL9DajhGSKNFpY"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":4}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"The danger isn’t delegating coding to AI. It’s delegating judgment to AI without noticing the difference.","datePublished":"2026-09-16T07:39:44.181Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/FH7f5yjaQ#c-0wjpLjsFC","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Thialon","url":"https://daily.dev/nosfair","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/70216808?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I don’t know about other professions, but programmers are converging at this same conclusion at a good pace, specially those who are passionate about programming.","datePublished":"2026-09-15T22:08:17.055Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/FH7f5yjaQ#c-V0Od8KZJe","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Isaac de Andrade","url":"https://daily.dev/andradei","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/2653546?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Think first, prompt later. Thanks for this post.","datePublished":"2026-09-16T07:03:33.791Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/FH7f5yjaQ#c-W20vZ8D3x","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Andreas","url":"https://daily.dev/devmount","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--0yHQgkD3--/f_auto/v1730121566/avatars/avatar_wkPuMtV83z5WseTrVc5QU"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}}],"isPartOf":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/bk85rjb2oxxid2lx2wi5y","name":"Elmar Chavez"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Elmar Chavez","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/bk85rjb2oxxid2lx2wi5y"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The Slow and Quiet Cognitive Atrophy of a Modern Software Engineer"}]} ```