Is Your AI Assistant Making You a Better Developer, or Just a Faster One?

Short summary

AI coding assistants like Claude and Codex boost productivity, but overreliance risks creating dependency and stalling skill development. The author warns against using AI to escape learning core debugging skills needed in interviews and emergencies. The key question: is the tool augmenting your expertise or replacing it?

• •AI assistants speed up coding but may hinder learning if overused
• •Risk of dependency: no AI during interviews, outages, or code reviews
• •Developers should balance productivity gains with continued skill development

Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.