Developer shares one month without AI coding tools
A software developer maintains a free open-source project called LibreWeddingPlanner and recently banned AI-generated contributions to avoid community drama. Although they continued using AI coding agents at work, the developer describes a period of declining skill and increasing frustration. They report that while AI agents could generate pull requests quickly, the resulting code often required…
Key points
- Developer banned AI contributions from their FOSS project LibreWeddingPlanner to maintain code quality.
- Using AI agents led to loss of code understanding, increased review time, and developer exhaustion.
- Stopping AI use for one month helped the developer regain coding skills and confidence in TDD.
After a coworker pointed out a flawed test in a PR, the developer realized they had become complacent and no longer understood the code they were shipping. They decided to stop using AI tools for a month to regain their skills. This period involved returning to Test-Driven Development (TDD) and writing smaller, more focused pull requests. The developer found that while they felt rusty initially, they eventually regained confidence and the ability to justify every line of code in reviews. They argue that AI coding tools can create an illusion of productivity while actually increasing cognitive load and reducing developer competence over time.
One Month Without AI
blog.bustikiller.com · 26 September 2026Loading the full article…
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1source- Hacker News discussion · 47 pointsnews.ycombinator.com
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