What's the effect of the prolonged AI usage among coders and is it tracked correctly, if it all?

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A reflective essay on the hidden costs of heavy AI coding tool usage. Covers cognitive debt and skill atrophy from over-relying on AI, the 'review paradox' where AI writes code but humans lose the ability to review it well, the collapse of the junior-to-senior engineering pipeline, and the dangers of Goodhart's Law when companies mandate AI usage metrics. References a 2026 randomized study showing AI-assisted developers scored 17% lower on debugging and conceptual understanding. Argues the right amount of AI is neither zero nor maximum, and that staying cognitively engaged—asking for explanations, writing code independently—preserves skills even with full AI access. Warns that productivity dashboards look great while underlying engineering capability quietly erodes.

What AI coding costs you