I wanted to share some thoughts on AI coding assistants that have been bothering me for a while, and I think the analogy of "a kid with a credit card" perfectly captures the danger of what some call "vibecoding." At least until we have true AGI, this feels like a serious issue.

After using Cursor intensively for the better part of a year, I'm stunned by how fast it is. It can scaffold entire features, wire up components, and write complex logic in seconds. The feeling is like the difference between driving a car with a manual versus an automatic transmission. Or maybe, more accurately, like the difference between reading detailed documentation versus just watching a summary video.

It's brought me back to when I first started using GitHub Copilot in 2023. Back then, it was mostly for autocompleting methods and providing in-context suggestions. That level of assistance felt just right. For more complex problems, I'd consciously switch contexts and ask a web-based AI like ChatGPT. I was still the one driving.

But tools like Cursor have changed the dynamic entirely. They are so proactive that they're stripping me of the habit of thinking deeply about the business logic. It's not that I've lost the ability to think, but I'm losing the ingrained, subconscious behavior of doing it. I'm no longer forced to hold the entire architecture in my head.

This is leading to a progressively weaker sense of ownership over the project. The workflow becomes:

Tell the AI to write a function.

Debug and test it.

Tell the AI to write the next function that connects to it.

Rinse and repeat. While fast, I end up with a series of black boxes I've prompted into existence. My role shifts from "I know what I'm building" to "I know what I want." There's a subtle but crucial difference. I'm becoming a project manager directing an AI intern, not an engineer crafting a solution.

This is detrimental for both the individual developer and the long-term health of a project. If everyone on the team adopts this workflow, who truly understands the full picture?

Here’s a concrete example that illustrates my point perfectly: writing git commit messages.

Every time I commit, I have a personal rule to review all changed files and write the commit message myself, in my own words. This forces me to synthesize the changes and solidifies my understanding of the project's state at that specific point in time. It keeps my sense of control strong.

If I were to let an AI auto-generate the commit message from the diff, I might save a few minutes. But a month later, looking back, I’d have no real memory or context for that commit. It would just be a technically accurate but soulless log entry.

I worry that by optimizing for short-term speed, we're sacrificing long-term understanding and control.

Is anyone else feeling this tension? How are you balancing the incredible power of these tools with the need to remain the master of your own codebase?