Go on an AI Detox

When I started at Atomic, one of the earliest lessons drilled into me was the skill of “computering” – moving around your machine quickly and efficiently so you could translate your thoughts into code with minimal friction. I learned Vim, memorized keyboard shortcuts, and optimized for mouseless navigation.

With the rise of AI-assisted development tools, “computering” is becoming less critical. Tools like Cursor, Copilot, and Claude can reason through problems, write significant portions of code for you, and help you fix your nitpicky syntax issues. Why remember Vim commands when you can just ask AI to refactor a function for you?

The problem is that convenience can make you rusty.

At Atomic, we pride ourselves on not being vibe coders. We don’t blindly trust whatever the oracle spits out. We use it as a tool — just like Vim and keyboard shortcuts — thoughtfully and intentionally. And sometimes, the best way to remember what you’re capable of is to turn those tools off for a while.

The Experiment

After using Cursor as my primary IDE for several months, I decided to take an AI detox. I switched back to plain old VSCode. I disabled Chat, Copilot completions, and anything AI-related. I reverted to good ol’ multi-cursor and Vim commands to edit my code quickly. When I needed AI’s help, I’d copy the relevant code into ChatGPT and ask specific questions, instead of letting an integrated AI do the heavy lifting.

For the first few days, I took a productivity hit. I found myself reaching for autocomplete that wasn’t there. But soon afterward, I started feeling my brain wake up. I was more engaged, understood the code more deeply, and felt genuinely satisfied when things worked, because I knew exactly how and why.

It felt good to remember my Vim chops, zipping around files and editing text quickly. There’s a joy in knowing you can move fast on your own, no assistance required.

What I Learned

An AI detox can teach you a lot about how you work and how much you rely on AI without realizing it.

• You rediscover the power of good tooling. Modern editors already do a lot for you. When you’re not leaning on AI, you appreciate features like type safety, automatic imports, and smart navigation.
• You actually learn. Writing code yourself forces you to read and understand the docs, dig into details, and experiment. You experience the frustration and the eventual “aha!” moment, which builds intuition.
• You understand the codebase better. You start seeing connections between files and modules. You notice patterns, conventions, and inconsistencies that AI might gloss over.
• You build confidence and clarity of thought. Coding without AI is slower, but it’s also cleaner. You think through each decision, and get better at reasoning about tradeoffs and explaining your choices.

Moreover, an AI detox is especially valuable when you’re new. Whether new to a project or to programming in general, skipping AI for a bit helps you build real understanding. You’ll learn the architecture, naming conventions, and tradeoffs firsthand instead of just asking an LLM for answers. It’s the difference between memorizing solutions and actually knowing how things work, which pays off when the AI eventually gives you a wrong answer or encounters a problem it can’t solve.

After a few weeks, I slowly started reintroducing AI into my workflow. Now I use it much more deliberately.

Why it Matters

AI is here to stay, but relying on it too much can make you a passive participant in your own work. Stepping away, even for a short while, helps you rebuild those instincts that made you a good developer in the first place.

Try it yourself sometime :) It might feel slower at first, but you’ll come out the other side sharper, faster, and more in control of your craft.