It's hard having two decades of experiences in a domain I suddenly find myself at odds with. Reading about others having the same qualm reassures me that I'm not going crazy. On the other I feel drawn further into an untenable contradictory position.

Once in a while I give in. It's typically when I'm faced with a non trivial problem I realize will take me days of learning before I have any chance of tackling it. My colleagues start suggesting it or share some slop to "help out". So I think fuck it I'll study later for now AI will solve it I need this ticket closed asap. I fire up a "decent" paid model and I start feeding it context. Every time it's a nightmare. Hours of trying stuff that doesn't stick, of questioning, of arguing with a chat bot, of wading through "here are the facts" and "good catch" and "I owe you an apology". It's not a shortcut it's a fucking dead end. Then the bitter aftertaste can only be cleansed with cold hard time consuming actual learning.