🪢 You Don't Own Me, I'm Not Just One of Your Many Toys 🧸
You Don't Owe Anyone a Computer Science Degree There's a particular flavor of guilt going around about using AI , and it usually sounds something like this : if I actually understood programming, I could've built this myself. The tool feels like a shortcut past knowledge I'm supposed to have earned. It's a tidy little anxiety , and it doesn't hold up to five minutes of scrutiny. Here's the more honest version of that thought : with enough money and enough education, you probably could accomplish most of what you use AI for — a small business website, a cover letter, a first draft of anything . That part is true. What's missing from the guilt spiral is the, "enough money and enough education," clause , which for most people is doing a lot of quiet, unacknowledged work . A computer science degree can cost thousands of dollars in tuition. A contractor charges an hourly rate that most solo operators don't have available. The skill...