Why I stopped using cursor
I am addicted, yes, addicted to the auto-complete, the coding agents, the fast, dopamine-infused, coding flow with Cursor. I no longer think about what I write. I only review code and push it. I can't remember the last time I wrote a program without using AI.
It started two to three years ago with Copilot. When I first used it, I thought about what I wrote. Copilot would write most of it, but I still defined the functions and the comments. After its suggestions, I would “tab”, “tab”, and it would write the rest.
Now, it is worse. I write what I think I want, imperfectly, then let the agent read everything for me, and change the code. Sometimes I even let it commit it.
Have I felt more productive? Maybe. At work, I can finish tickets faster, debug faster, and not do what I don't want to do. Have I learned the lessons that toughen developers over time? Probably not.
Many research articles talk about how your brain turns off when you use AI to do the work for you. I won’t keep beating that drum.
I have turned into a vessel through which prompts flow, and I lost something. The joy of programming, the frustration, the enlightenment, the delight of figuring things out.
That’s why I’m deleting Cursor. Not because it didn’t help me. Not because it’s not going to revolutionize the world. But because I want to preserve the struggle, the lessons, and the joy of feeling competent.