For someone using AI tools since it was cool, I had no business underestimating it. But somehow, I did. I lived in a weird contradiction: building personal projects with AI, relying on it at work, all while thinking, “Eh, we still have five years before it changes things.”
Yeah. About that…
🚀 Early Access, Early Doubts
I was among the early folks who got access to GitHub Copilot. I remember thinking, “Whoa, this is the future!” — and then six weeks later, “Okay, this is a decent autocomplete.” I even paid for it. Religiously. Until they made it free.
After Copilot, I wandered the lands of AI tooling like a confused yet hopeful pilgrim:
- Tried Codeium by Windsurf
- Didn’t bother switching to a full AI editor (because I was too lazy to download an editor and get used to it!)
- Experimented with Kodu AI, got the paid plan
With Kodu, I even enabled auto-approve mode for my personal projects and went for a walk while it did its thing. Peak delegation.
Each tool gave me the same cycle: initial excitement, curiosity, a few “wow” moments — followed by a shrug and the classic “Nah, this won’t really change the game.”
💻 Tool Fatigue and Realization
Eventually, I moved to Cursor and Windsurf Editor — the cool kids on the block. Cursor especially felt slick and productive, but also prone to a little too much creative storytelling (aka hallucinations).
But one day, I looked back. Not just at the tools, but at my workflow.
In the last 60 days, I might have manually written maybe 50 lines of code — and even that’s being generous. The rest? AI.
I now spend most of my time:
- Thinking
- Reviewing code
- Testing
That’s it. The heavy lifting? Done by a machine that doesn’t sleep, doesn’t complain, and doesn’t ask for equity.
🧠 Denial Was Comfortable
Looking back, I realize I was in the “denial phase” of the AI curve — fully surrounded by the tech, even benefiting from it, yet dismissing its true impact.
It’s like being on a treadmill, accelerating slowly, thinking you’re walking — until you fly off the back because it hit 20 km/h without warning.
I genuinely thought “real change is five years away.”
But we’ve already been in it for the last two.
⚡ The New Normal
Today, I use Cursor’s paid plan for my personal projects and the enterprise version at work. Every week, I see new AI tools popping up — some are “meh,” some are total disasters, and a rare few actually get the job done.
Whether it’s:
- Coding → Cursor, Copilot
- Design → Stitch
- Documents, Planning stuff like finance, habits, etc → ChatGPT, Gemini
- Images → Stable Diffusion
- Videos → (still waiting for the Pixar version)
…AI is everywhere. Not a luxury anymore — it’s a necessity.
🎯 Final Thought
It’s not perfect yet.
There are flaws, hallucinations, bugs, and moments that make you question everything.
But honestly,
It sometimes feels like more than we need.
This article has me thinking… could it be AI-generated? I don’t know :P