The shittiest thing about AI as a SWE is that while it's not the 10x nitro-boost that all the AI hypebeast grifters on here claim it is, it *is* a net ~30% productivity gain (once you factor in all the review, code slop clean up, etc.), which is *just* enough of a boost where you cannot justify not using it.
This is a letdown because using AI after years of learning to code without it is of course an ongoing humiliation ritual, (counterintuitively) *more* exhausting/draining than coding by hand, and way less enjoyable in general.