--- title: I miss thinking hard. | daily.dev description: A software engineer reflects on how AI coding assistants have changed their relationship with problem-solving. While AI enables faster development and... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-miss-thinking-hard--yy5t8f2rv twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: I miss thinking hard. | daily.dev og:description: A software engineer reflects on how AI coding assistants have changed their relationship with problem-solving. While AI enables faster development and... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-miss-thinking-hard--yy5t8f2rv og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/yY5t8F2rV.png og:image:alt: I miss thinking hard. 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. # I miss thinking hard. **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A software engineer reflects on how AI coding assistants have changed their relationship with problem-solving. While AI enables faster development and satisfies the desire to build and ship products, it has reduced opportunities for deep, prolonged thinking that once provided intellectual satisfaction and growth. The author describes feeling caught between pragmatism (using AI for efficiency) and the need for mentally challenging work, unsure how to satisfy both needs simultaneously. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [A.I. Should Elevate Your Thinking, Not Replace It](https://daily.dev/posts/a-i-should-elevate-your-thinking-not-replace-it-a7si2mcn1) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The grief when AI writes most of the code](https://daily.dev/posts/the-grief-when-ai-writes-most-of-the-code-ffmhwvqbd) · The Pragmatic Engineer · 33 upvotes · 6 comments --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career), [#productivity](https://daily.dev/tags/productivity) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-miss-thinking-hard--yy5t8f2rv) ```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":"I miss thinking hard.","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-miss-thinking-hard--yy5t8f2rv","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-miss-thinking-hard--yy5t8f2rv"},"datePublished":"2026-02-04T05:24:54.665Z","dateModified":"2026-02-04T05:25:53.647Z","description":"A software engineer reflects on how AI coding assistants have changed their relationship with problem-solving. While AI enables faster development and...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--1KxV4ohY--/f_auto/v1722860400/public/Placeholder%2007","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--1KxV4ohY--/f_auto/v1722860400/public/Placeholder%2007","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hacker News","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":"Hacker News","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/hn","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-miss-thinking-hard--yy5t8f2rv","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"ai,career,productivity","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hacker News","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"I miss thinking hard."}]} ```