AI is a neat tool. As with all neat tools there are times to use it and times to avoid it, or to pick a better tool. Here’s a brief summary of my experience so far. If I were to sum it up: use AI when the stakes are low, the results don’t matter, and you just need something “good enough” done.
Do not use AI:
- Learning about a codebase: it will make things confusing and the learning won’t stick as well as manually walking around through the codebase via LSP
- Getting work done in an unfamiliar context: you won’t really know if it is sneaking a business bug in there, even if the code is correctly placed and logically sound (which it often also is not)
- Writing communications to people you know: it will be obvious and could be offensive.
- Story telling: I’ve tried this a few times with my 5yo and while the stories technically are stories, they suck. Use your brain and be in the moment, a parents made up on the spot stories will always be more fun for all
Do use AI:
- Bypassing search ads, site ads, or other obnoxious things about the web: the best example I’ve found is looking for a recipe.
- Coding when you know EXACTLY what you want and you are confident in your ability to describe it. I’ll caveat this with you should have your agent fully trained with a good amount of context setup about coding style before doing this
- Coding when the task is well worn: AI was trained on existing code, it’s good at something that exists in 10K codebases already, let it do it if it’s just busy work for you and not part of learning
- When talking to an AI: for example when replying to a recruiter email - this is probably an AI you’re talking to, don’t waste your time
- Taking notes and summarizing things: I use superwhisper for this and love it, speaking to an AI with your voice and having it respond feels very good/natural vs typing things out. Superwhisper also works with claude code or gemini cli.
- Blog logos: see above :)
AI Cost
The cost of AI includes developer happiness and productivity as well as the actual cost of the AI
When do people use AI?
