{"slug": "is-ai-decreasing-my-capability-to-think", "title": "Is AI decreasing my capability to think?", "summary": "A developer has reported that reliance on AI coding tools like Claude Code is diminishing their sense of intellectual ownership over projects. The engineer described a pattern where their first instinct is to consult AI for market analysis, feature prioritization, and product direction, leaving them feeling like they are \"borrowing a brain\" rather than thinking independently. The developer noted that while AI often provides reasonable or superior advice, the friction of struggling with ideas and making mistakes was previously essential to developing their own judgment and sense of personal accomplishment.", "body_md": "**Note:** This post doesn't use AI at all, so there will probably be grammatical mistakes and weird sentences. Isn't that's how blogs used to be written before AI became everyone's editor & english tutor.\n\nLately I've noticed something weird happening to me.\n\nWhenever I get an idea for an app, no matter how small or random, my first instinct is not to think about it myself.\n\nInstead, I open Claude Code.\n\nI ask questions like:\n\nOne question turns into another.\n\nThen another.\n\nAnd before I realize it, I'm in a 100-message conversation where the AI has analyzed the market, identified competitors, suggested features, created a roadmap, and basically decided the entire direction of the product.\n\nAll that's left for me to do is execute.\n\nThe funny thing is that this feels incredibly productive.\n\nI can move from an idea to a detailed plan within minutes. The amount of leverage these tools provide is honestly insane.\n\nBut there's a side effect that I've been struggling to explain.\n\nNone of these projects feel completely mine.\n\nEven when I spend weeks building & improving it (with AI).\n\nEven when I launch the product myself.\n\nSomething feels different.\n\nIt feels like I'm building products using someone else's thought process.\n\nLike I'm borrowing a brain.\n\nAnd every time I rely on that borrowed brain, my own gets used a little less.\n\nI remember how I used to work before AI.\n\nI'd get an idea and spend hours thinking about it.\n\nMost of those thoughts were probably terrible.\n\nI'd go down wrong paths.\n\nI'd overthink things.\n\nI'd build features nobody wanted.\n\nBut the entire journey was mine.\n\nThe conclusions were mine.\n\nThe mistakes were mine.\n\nThe product reflected how I thought about the world.\n\nToday the process feels different.\n\nInstead of asking myself whether an idea is worth pursuing, I ask AI.\n\nInstead of deciding which feature to prioritize, I ask AI.\n\nInstead of debating multiple approaches in my head, I ask AI.\n\nSometimes I even ask AI what I should think about next.\n\nThat last part scares me a little.\n\nBecause at some point the tool stops helping you think and starts thinking for you.\n\nThe scary thing is that AI is usually good.\n\nIf it gave terrible advice all the time, this wouldn't be a problem.\n\nThe problem is that the advice is often reasonable.\n\nSometimes it's even better than what I would have come up with.\n\nWhich makes it harder to ignore & This convenience is \"addictive\".\n\nEven while writing this blog, I keep getting tempted to paste it into ChatGPT and ask:\n\n\"Can you improve this?\"\n\n\"Can you make it flow better?\"\n\n\"Can you rewrite this section?\"\n\nThe temptation is always there.\n\nAnd honestly, that's what inspired this post.\n\nI wanted to see if I could still sit with my own thoughts long enough to publish them.\n\nNot because AI would write it badly.\n\nProbably the opposite.\n\nAI would write it better.\n\nBut would it still feel like \"my\" post?\n\nI'm not sure.\n\nI don't think AI is making people stupid.\n\nThat's too simplistic.\n\nWhat I think is happening is that AI is removing friction from thinking.\n\nAnd friction, surprisingly, was doing something useful.\n\nStruggling with ideas.\n\nBeing confused.\n\nTaking the wrong path.\n\nChanging your mind.\n\nAll of those things were part of the process of developing your own judgment.\n\nNow we can skip large portions of that process.\n\nWhich is great for productivity.\n\nBut maybe not great for ownership.\n\nMaybe this complete post is not required but yeah I was just confused and wanted to know other people opinions.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/is-ai-decreasing-my-capability-to-think", "canonical_source": "https://dev.to/pulkitgovrani/is-ai-decreasing-my-capability-to-think-3238", "published_at": "2026-06-06 05:29:47+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-06 05:41:58.431064+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-tools", "ai-products", "ai-ethics", "generative-ai"], "entities": ["Claude Code"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/is-ai-decreasing-my-capability-to-think", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/is-ai-decreasing-my-capability-to-think.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/is-ai-decreasing-my-capability-to-think.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/is-ai-decreasing-my-capability-to-think.jsonld"}}