--- title: I used AI. It worked. I hated it. | daily.dev description: A developer with strong anti-genAI views shares their experience using Claude Code to build a certificate generation tool for a learning platform migration.... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-used-ai-it-worked-i-hated-it--selogov58 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: I used AI. It worked. I hated it. | daily.dev og:description: A developer with strong anti-genAI views shares their experience using Claude Code to build a certificate generation tool for a learning platform migration.... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-used-ai-it-worked-i-hated-it--selogov58 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/seLoGOV58.png og:image:alt: I used AI. It worked. I hated it. 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 used AI. It worked. I hated it. **[Lobsters](https://daily.dev/sources/lobsters)** · 24 min read · 99 upvotes · 18 comments ## Summary A developer with strong anti-genAI views shares their experience using Claude Code to build a certificate generation tool for a learning platform migration. The project succeeded — the Rust/Svelte app is in production — but the process felt miserable. Key observations: TDD with plan-mode kept the model on track, Rust's compile-time safety helped catch hallucinations, a security audit pass found real vulnerabilities (path traversal, timing side-channel in Argon2), and the tool delivered features the author wouldn't have built alone. Despite the functional success, the author warns about the 'human in the loop' problem — the process actively encourages disengagement — and reflects on cognitive dependency, skill atrophy for junior developers, IP theft concerns, and the broader societal harms. The conclusion is nuanced: it works in this narrow domain, the harms still outweigh benefits at scale, but condemning individuals for using it is counterproductive. ## 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. **@code\_chimp** · 8 upvotes > Is using AI more fulfilling than hand coding? No. > Is unemployment more fulfilling than using AI? Also no. **@ezpie** · 2 upvotes > ok ok sane idea right here, let's form a cult and burn down data centers. WHO'S WITH ME! **@confidentcoding** · 2 upvotes > _"How does one become an expert? There are no shortcuts; there is only continuous hard work and dedication."_ > > Indeed. Real understanding comes from friction, and friction comes from problem solving. If you cut out the problem solving, whatever you think you know is superficial. > > I do find I can strike a balance. Lately I'm referring to it as "hybrid" or "blend" at this point. It's definitely more than just using them as autocomplete, but way less than SDD: I use the LLM to generate the plan, and **I do the implementation**. Especially starting from scratch, deciding how to architect and plan... **@noricode** · 2 upvotes > I enjoy using AI, I dont enjoy consuming AI slop **@tilman151** · 2 upvotes > I see typst, I like. > > > Otherwise, a really interesting read on the ethics of the existence and using LLMs, without being preachy. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [What I learned using Claude Sonnet to migrate Python to Rust](https://daily.dev/posts/what-i-learned-using-claude-sonnet-to-migrate-python-to-rust-wtchq1s8n) · InfoWorld · 10 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#rust](https://daily.dev/tags/rust), [#ai-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-coding), [#tdd](https://daily.dev/tags/tdd), [#claude-code](https://daily.dev/tags/claude-code) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-used-ai-it-worked-i-hated-it--selogov58) ```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 used AI. 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WHO’S WITH ME!","datePublished":"2026-04-04T10:41:26.419Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/seLoGOV58#c-GdklEenqm","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Ezpie","url":"https://daily.dev/ezpie","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/104765117?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"“How does one become an expert? There are no shortcuts; there is only continuous hard work and dedication.”\nIndeed. Real understanding comes from friction, and friction comes from problem solving. If you cut out the problem solving, whatever you think you know is superficial.\nI do find I can strike a balance. Lately I’m referring to it as “hybrid” or “blend” at this point. It’s definitely more than just using them as autocomplete, but way less than SDD: I use the LLM to generate the plan, and I do the implementation. Especially starting from scratch, deciding how to architect and plan an app out can be challenging, and I often like to see examples of other architectures to help me decide how I want to structure things. In the past, I’d often look for starter repos as inspiration and then begin putting things together after getting some initial direction.\nI’ll shamelessly plug that I’m going to be teaching this method in a small course I’m rolling out later this year. Personally, as the dust (hype) continues to settle, I think we’ll be seeing a lot more devs being comfortable settling into this workflow. Especially as we see more examples of what the quality of an LLM-driven codebases look like (e.g. the Clade Code leak).","datePublished":"2026-04-06T15:04:34.368Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/seLoGOV58#c-nZ6hwRbOj","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":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I enjoy using AI, I dont enjoy consuming AI slop","datePublished":"2026-04-09T15:53:03.886Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/seLoGOV58#c-uMb6K0ogh","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"noricode","url":"https://daily.dev/noricode","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/v1672934357/avatars/avatar_v9I0Ty3qOPTDx9IvWetC0.jpg"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I see typst, I like.\nOtherwise, a really interesting read on the ethics of the existence and using LLMs, without being preachy.","datePublished":"2026-04-03T18:50:34.779Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/seLoGOV58#c-6YUVAbMNH","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Tilman Krokotsch","url":"https://daily.dev/tilman151","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/9466385?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}}]} ```