Published: 2026-01-18 00:00
The struggle to know something, to become familiar with it, to actually understand it. That hard work is what makes us learn, understand, and gain wisdom.
Without the struggle, we don't learn anything.
When we reach for a "done for you" approach, we end up with a lot of useful tools. We spend time familiarizing ourselves with those tools and learning how to use them. But we don't actually understand the tools themselves or the software that's running them.
Let's take Neovim, for example. There are several repositories out there that provide a "done-for-you" configuration with key bindings and plugins. When we use this type of setup, we get a lot of functionality out of the box.
Much of it is useful, yes. But we don't understand the ideas and concepts behind what makes it work. And if we ever want to change something, we don't have the foundational knowledge to make those changes.
The same thing applies to AI agents.
All the skills, commands, and custom configurations that we can bolt onto our systems. There are many repos out there for this kind of thing such as the GSD and Superpower repositories.
These provide a lot of functionality, but it's not necessarily functionality tailored to your needs. And you probably won't be using everything they provide.
It is far more useful to spend time building what you need yourself. Whether that's the commands, the skills, or the workflows. Understanding how they're orchestrated together and how to make them effective and useful gives you the ability to build anything you particularly need.
You're not locked into a certain paradigm, and it gives you much more power and flexibility over the systems you choose to create. No matter the tool you're using.
It takes more time up front and it feels like a slog.
It feels like you're falling behind because there's so much you can just bolt on and have running immediately. But I encourage you to take the time and invest in the understanding and knowledge.
AI supercharges our abilities, but it can also atrophy our brains if we're not careful.
Take the time. Read the docs. Watch the videos. Get the understanding you need to fully grasp what can be done, how to do it.
Be the software engineer because that's not going away.