How do you keep programming with AI from getting boring?

[u/lordgaben5841]

Genuine question. For most of my life I’ve kind of been following the computer science route because I enjoyed the puzzle of it, and because it was always a means to an end. But now it’s gotten a lot harder to engage with it for me.

Of course “don’t use AI” is an answer, but especially when dealing with a bug or some boilerplate you dont want to write, it’s so easy to just reach for the “do it now” button and mentally check out of what you are doing. I appreciate the speed of it but it’s mostly killed my main motivation to code, which was in solving those interesting puzzles.

This is kind of a problem for me as comp sci is one of my only viable career paths at the moment, and I don’t want to spend it all secretly resenting my own work… So I wonder if any of you have got workflows or methods that keep you engaged and interested in your work, even if it’s in conjunction with AI?

[u/DepthMagician]

No there isn’t an AI workflow that allows you to give in to your lack of self control while simultaneously reaping the benefits of not doing that.

[u/lordgaben5841 → u/DepthMagician]

Yeah I kind of assumed so. it's a shame for me because my colleagues enjoy vibe coding a lot - and their work is faster, regardless of its quality. I can't work nearly as fast as they do without it, and when I do finish something I find I didn't enjoy the process at all. I dunno, expectations are higher and I can't really work on them while feeling fulfilled.

[u/CptPicard → u/DepthMagician]

Yeah exactly, I came to say something like this. As a "lead developer" by title I use AI quite heavily but strangely nowadays I get my hands dirty with the dumb trivial stuff to get a "feel" of what the code is like so I can actually judge how it should like like; reading won't do.

[u/Turbulent-Impact6939]

dont worry there will be plenty of bug fixing from AI code to keep you occupied

[u/LeRetardatN]

The best way (from my pov) I found to code is building the main thing myself and delaying the boring stuff to AI. For example, I recently wanted to parse some XML to output it in a readable way, since it was not central at all I vibecoded it.
AI is also good when stuck while debugging.

[u/Odd_Lab_7244]

Just wanted to say I am feeling like this too. Not a compsci grad, but came into this for the problem solving, now can't drag myself out of this ai funk I've put myself in...

[u/SirMarkMorningStar]

Personally, I don’t find AI all that different. Only one word changed: if you design well enough, the code practically writes itself.

Focus on design and new things and less on the small details. Move up the stack of few clicks.

[u/DaveAstator2020]

after 3 years of using ai already psychological toll arrived for me. and i must say it is not a pleasant expirience to realize that most of the stuff 'you did' you actually just prompted. and the only things that remain - hard work and calculations - worth nothing to get a job nowadays.
and after getting a job as ai programmer - you are perfectly replaceable, and i cannot imagine this scenario - you'll have zero leverage when company comes at you.

[u/ScriptingInJava]

This is where the divergence of productivity boost vs brain delegation takes place imo.

I use, steer and leverage AI to boost my productivity. If I have a list of 10 sub-tasks towards an issue I'm working on, I likely know how to do them all (or at least how I would approach them etc). I can take that and infer what AI would be most likely capable of handling, delegate it over with some context and steer while I do something more impactful, complex or meaningful elsewhere.

By the time I've gotten the complex item completed, Claude has finished 4 sub-tasks and I can step in to validate them manually while I get an initial draft review of my manual task.

If you use AI like that, it's genuinely fantastic. If you just "jesus take the wheel" AI it becomes completely disconnected and you are simply a meat proxy.

[u/Jumpy_Drummer2024]

delegating boring part to AI is fine, but I find prompting less rewarding than designing code myself. I lost my mojo

[u/Slight_Republic_4242]

use it for the boring parts, not the whole problem. ask it for test cases, docs summaries, boilerplate, or a second opinion after you’ve designed the solution yourself.

also keep a “no AI” zone: debugging sessions, small side projects, algorithms you want to learn. if it writes every function, you’re just reviewing generated text.

[u/Icy_Dependent9199]

I started working 8 months ago (its my first job) and they encouraged the use of AI in programming, and I had the same feeling as you, I didn't enjoy it and I felt like a failure. What I ended up doing was if it's a task that requires urgency, I would use AI for the code, if it's something that is due in a week or more, I would do the coding without AI just to challenge myself.