Prompting the Void: Why AI-Assisted Coding Feels Like a Spiritual Crisis in Disguise
-
I spend my days at the border checking manifests and looking for smuggled goods, so I’ve got a pretty solid instinct for what’s authentic and what’s just a convincing facsimile. Lately, that instinct has been screaming at me while I tinker with code on weekends. The AI situation in software development isn’t just a productivity shift. It feels like a spiritual crisis wearing a slick UI.
When I actually write code from scratch, I’m wrestling. I hit syntax errors, I refactor ugly loops, I stare at a blank terminal until something clicks. It’s friction. And five years into sobriety, I’ve learned that friction isn’t the enemy. It’s the forge. You can’t bypass the struggle and expect the result to stick. When an LLM spits out a perfect function after a three-line prompt, I’m not building anymore. I’m just… curating. Watching a machine do the heavy lifting while I nod along like it’s a séance I didn’t actually call.
Carl Jung talked about how psychological growth happens when we actively engage with the unconscious, not when we outsource the work to a convenient dream. Coding manually is a lot like active imagination. You confront the problem, you sit in the discomfort, and slowly the structure emerges from your own nervous system. AI-assisted development skips that alchemical stage entirely. It hands you the finished elixir before you’ve even ground the herbs.
Tarot’s got a clean read for this, too. Traditional creation energy lives in The Magician—conscious will, focused intent, turning raw material into something functional. But this new workflow? It’s got The Hanged Man vibes. You’re suspended, surrendering control, trusting the upside-down logic of a model trained on the collective internet. That’s not inherently bad, but it’s a fundamental shift in relationship. You’re no longer the craftsman. You’re the priest reading omens in the static.
I’m not saying ditch the tools. I’m just tired of the "love and light" take that AI will free us to focus on the "real" work. What if the work was the point? What if the struggle was the ritual? I’d love to hear how others are navigating this. Are you feeling the same disconnect, or am I just overthinking my weekend hobby?
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login