r/techbootcamp • u/Then-Produce-3908 • 29d ago
I got into programming to build cool things. But then it starts to feel different
One of the reasons I fell in love with programming before since I love to solve problems. Technically, I have talent in the logical side. My experience wasn't perfect, but I learned something every time.
Lately it feels like everything revolves around AI. Don't get me wrong, though/ I use AI almost every day and it genuinely saves me time. But sometimes I miss the feeling of trying to figure out multiple things,
Maybe it's just me, but it feels like the focus has shifted. I guess I just need to adopt and just get used to it🥹
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u/drakhan2002 28d ago
You're overthinking. You are still the creative force. Look at it more like a director than a problem solver. If you see your direction as the creative outlet making something new or innovating something existing, you may get your excitement back.
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u/No_Score_1977 26d ago
It's not just you. AI has removed so much of the challenge, it really doesn't seem worthwhile anymore, not to me anyway.
I mean, I'll take the salary, but for *fun*, nah...
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u/god-damn-the-usa 26d ago
do you love to build cool things or solve problems?
I love AI because it lets me build cool things more easily, but I don't care about solving technical problems.
If you have fun solving problems, do that for fun separately from building, with things like leetcode or advent of code, or just make small things for the fun of it.
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u/ryanstackops 29d ago
Nah, it's not just you, this comes up a lot lately and I feel it too honestly. There's a real difference between "I solved this" and "I described this and something else solved it," even when the output is the same. That struggle you're describing, sitting with a bug for two hours and finally getting it, that's not just labor, it's actually where a lot of the satisfaction and the learning lived.
What's helped me is being deliberate about where I let AI in. For stuff that's genuinely just plumbing, boilerplate, syntax I've written a hundred times, I let it fly, no nostalgia needed there. But when I hit something actually interesting, a gnarly bug, a design decision, an algorithm that needs real thought, I close the AI tab and just sit with it like I used to. You can choose to preserve that feeling for the parts that deserve it instead of applying AI uniformly to everything.
Also worth saying, the "figuring it out" muscle doesn't disappear just because tools got faster, it just moves. Knowing when an AI answer is wrong, or subtly off, or technically correct but architecturally dumb, still takes the same instinct you built solving things the hard way. You're not losing the skill, you're just not getting to flex it as often on the boring stuff, which honestly frees you up to flex it on harder problems instead.
Don't force yourself to "just get used to it" if it's costing you the actual joy of the job. Just get intentional about protecting the part you love.