You can just turn the AI off. I think that's a good idea to do regularly, in the same way it's good to have some time every day without screens and internet in your life.

I did some "trad coding" to see how much I'd atrophied, and I was startled at how difficult and unpleasant it was. I was just stuck and frustrated almost the whole time! But I persisted for 7 hours and was able to solve the problem.

Then I remembered, actually it was always like that! At least when doing something unfamiliar. That's just what programming feels like, but I had stopped being used to it because of the instant gratification of the magic "just fix my problem now" button.

In reality had spent 7 hours in "learning mode", where the whole point is that you don't understand yet. (I was moving almost the whole time, but each new situation was also unfamiliar!)

But if I had used AI, it would have eliminated the struggle, and given me the superficial feeling of understanding, like when you skim a textbook and think "yeah I know this part" because you recognize the page. But can you produce it? That's the only question that matters.

I think that's going to become a very important question going forward. Sure, you don't need to produce it right now. But it's mostly not for right now.

Just like you don't "need" to run and lift weights. But what happens if you stop?