As long you can open up a browser and tell HN about your experience there's ain't a problem.
It's a tool and I'm using it too. You forget things when you don't steady repeat them. It's a use it or lose it situation, but a win-win for your self empowerment.
So, how do you use it? May be you just need to change a little bit in your usage, like me switched on verbose mode answering so i can read what's actually being done during thinking steps and code. That keeps me busy babysitting that energy sucker. ...
I would tell AI my thought process and ideas, and ask it to help me write interview questions or generate an article. If I'm not satisfied—for example, if the wording is inappropriate, the language style is off, or something I wanted is missing—I'll have it revise until I'm happy with it. Now I rarely type on my own anymore. It's mostly copy and paste.
I like to automate everything so even copy and paste would be a welcomed challenge for me :) so what you could need is a change in your workflow. Start exploring what's out there in terms of different user interfaces - may be another interface will make you more productive enjoying it more Again? Or, you could start to shape your workflow and to make it better where problems or unnecessaties slow you down..
So this will help you to be creative (which is thinking) and you will end up in something you actually can use without that monotoneism. My take would be to write a chrome extension that is able to add annotations in text inline (line ms word {} hidden auto tags) and can copy paste text into prompt input. Or standalone version of this with scripts.. make your live easy and enjoy the tools for selfempowerment! :)
I feel the same way at times. There was a time I used to love writing, communicating and often "starting from scratch", but in the recent years where ChatGPT started replacing college assignments, I slowly stopped thinking originally, and started a feedback loop where everything I write, no matter what it is, has to get "checked" by an AI first.
I think changes comes slowly though, my way of starting change was writing this all by myself
I still remember that impulse, before AI, of googling everything before thinking a bit. AI as a technology is incredibly new and we're still figuring out how to use it, but things will stabilize. 'googling' everything also didn't take away our ability to think, so as long as you're aware, you can do something about it.
Work on a physical project, get into hardware design, build something physical. Even if you use AI for some of the research you’ll still be thinking a lot more than you will doing things that can entirely be validated with a chatbot
I’ve only been doing hardware for a few years, and I’m not the best in the world at it but I still find a lot of joy in building something with my hands and seeing it work. Definitely not too late in your thirties to get into anything, even woodworking or product design or sewing or anything physical with an intellectual challenge behind it.
Even if I continue to think for myself, it would be sad if my superiors and colleagues relied on AI.
Is it too much to ask that my feedback on my work be provided by humans?
It's a tool and I'm using it too. You forget things when you don't steady repeat them. It's a use it or lose it situation, but a win-win for your self empowerment.
So, how do you use it? May be you just need to change a little bit in your usage, like me switched on verbose mode answering so i can read what's actually being done during thinking steps and code. That keeps me busy babysitting that energy sucker. ...