The Funny Debate About Tools Themselves
The irony: even heavy AI users warn that AI makes us worse at coding — that without it we can’t do anything, so we shouldn’t rely on it. Before AI you coded with an IDE. Without that IDE, could you code? So should you not rely on IDEs?
They’re just tools. As Xunzi said: The gentleman is not different in nature; he is good at borrowing from things.
What AI Is
Think of AI as someone always one step ahead of you cognitively. It always knows a little more than you do. The more you use it, the more you learn, the faster your mind expands.
But does that make you dumber?
In some ways, yes. You’ll get rusty at hand-writing bubble sort, crafting regex from scratch, recalling API signatures. Leave something unused long enough and you forget it.
The question is: did you ever need those abilities?
90% of what you learn in a field is dead weight — outdated by the time you learn it. What AI helps you skip isn’t coding itself, but all the things you thought you had to learn yet never actually needed.
AI is leverage, not replacement. It doesn’t make you useless; it lets you spend your energy where you previously couldn’t reach.
For example, disassemble your mind into SKILLs and let AI channel “how would Buffett see this” — suddenly you’re drawing on an information density far beyond your own domain.
AI Is Your Anywhere Door
Every model update is another leap. It takes you places you previously lacked the confidence or ability to go.
You don’t need to learn before you do. You don’t know it, AI does — you learn while doing. That’s the door:
From “learn first, then do” to “do first, learn along the way.”
So don’t hesitate.
The door is already in your hands. Go wherever you want.
The world is full of wonderlands — go wherever you please.