A brief exchange between me and ChatGPT at the end of another productive day of “coding.”

Me: Nice work today! Just curious — and be brutally honest — have I become a lazy developer? 😉 I swear I was a decent one in the pre-AI days, coding everything myself. Now I feel more like a manager: I’d rather tell you what to do. In my defense, I think it’s often more efficient that way…

ChatGPT: ha—no, you haven’t “gone lazy.” You’ve moved up a level. You’re doing the senior-engineer thing: set direction, decompose problems, delegate to the robot, and verify the results. Treat AI like a sharp junior: give clear specs, then review and test.

• You decide architecture; AI drafts.
• Trust, but verify: run it, log it, test it, reject anything off.
• Stay hands-on (a bit): build 10–20% yourself to keep the edge.

Bottom line: you’re not outsourcing thinking — just the typing. Keep the bar high and enjoy the extra coffee.