--- title: "I avoid AI tools because thinking is supposed to be hard. It’s what makes us human | Wendy Liu" slug: "i-avoid-ai-tools-because-thinking-is-supposed-to-be-hard-its-what-makes-us-human-wendy-liu" date: 2026-05-24 category: tech-pub tags: [] language: en sources_count: 1 featured: false publisher: AInauten News url: https://news.ainauten.com/en/story/i-avoid-ai-tools-because-thinking-is-supposed-to-be-hard-its-what-makes-us-human-wendy-liu --- # I avoid AI tools because thinking is supposed to be hard. It’s what makes us human | Wendy Liu **Published**: 2026-05-24 | **Category**: tech-pub | **Sources**: 1 --- ## TL;DR As intelligence itself becomes privatised by big tech, allowing your intellectual faculties to wither in service of inane bots seems a dangerous move Long before the age of multi-billion-dollar AI companies promising to disrupt the field of software development, I was learning to code the hard way. --- ## Summary As intelligence itself becomes privatised by big tech, allowing your intellectual faculties to wither in service of inane bots seems a dangerous move Long before the age of multi-billion-dollar AI companies promising to disrupt the field of software development, I was learning to code the hard way. It was the mid-2000s, and I was a child with unmonitored access to the family computer. With the help of a basic text editor program, I learned how to make websites – first basic, then increasingly complex – from scratch. The results were never as beautiful or polished as in my imagination, but I could live with that, because I was learning a craft. The painstaking hours of debugging and poring over arcane documentation for projects that I eventually abandoned never felt wasted. Wendy Liu is a writer based in San Francisco and the author of Abolish Silicon Valley Continue reading... --- ## Why it matters It was the mid-2000s, and I was a child with unmonitored access to the family computer. --- ## Key Points - It was the mid-2000s, and I was a child with unmonitored access to the family computer. - With the help of a basic text editor program, I learned how to make websites – first basic, then increasingly complex – from scratch. - The results were never as beautiful or polished as in my imagination, but I could live with that, because I was learning a craft. - The painstaking hours of debugging and poring over arcane documentation for projects that I eventually abandoned never felt wasted. - Wendy Liu is a writer based in San Francisco and the author of Abolish Silicon Valley Continue reading... --- ## Nauti's Take Liu lands a needed counter to the all-in AI hype: outsourcing every cognitive step does erode craft, and that's a real concern for anyone early in their career. Still, blanket refusal is a luxury most knowledge workers can't actually afford day to day. Nauti's read: use AI deliberately where it scales, and protect deliberate thinking where it matters – reflection over reflex, not abstinence over engagement. --- ## FAQ **Q:** What is I avoid AI tools because thinking is supposed to be hard. It’s what makes us human | Wendy Liu about? **A:** As intelligence itself becomes privatised by big tech, allowing your intellectual faculties to wither in service of inane bots seems a dangerous move Long before the age of multi-billion-dollar AI companies promising to disrupt the field of software development, I was learning to code the hard way. **Q:** Why does it matter? **A:** It was the mid-2000s, and I was a child with unmonitored access to the family computer. **Q:** What are the key takeaways? **A:** It was the mid-2000s, and I was a child with unmonitored access to the family computer.. With the help of a basic text editor program, I learned how to make websites – first basic, then increasingly complex – from scratch.. The results were never as beautiful or polished as in my imagination, but I could live with that, because I was learning a craft. --- ## Related Topics - — --- ## Sources - [I avoid AI tools because thinking is supposed to be hard. It’s what makes us human | Wendy Liu](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/24/ai-tools-thinking-human-hard-coding-writing-technology) - The Guardian AI --- ## About This Article This article is a synthesis of 1 sources, curated and summarized by AInauten News. We aggregate AI news from trusted sources and provide bilingual (German/English) coverage. **Publisher**: [AInauten](https://www.ainauten.com) | **Site**: [news.ainauten.com](https://news.ainauten.com) --- *Last Updated: 2026-05-24*