How I Rediscovered My Love for Building With Help From an Invisible Teammate

When I first started programming, it was exciting—creative, even intoxicating. I came from a background in electronics engineering, and code felt like this unlimited sandbox where I could invent anything. I dove in enthusiastically, thinking I’d found the perfect side hustle or creative outlet.

But then something quietly happened.
It became my job.

As the years passed, coding shifted from being something I wanted to do into something I had to do. Billable hours replaced passion projects. Technical creativity was funneled into client deadlines. And somewhere along the way, I stopped building things for myself.

That’s when I realized the truth:

I didn’t love programming anymore.

I had become a consultant. A good one. But I wasn’t a builder anymore. And worse, I had stopped imagining the kinds of software I might create if I were building just for myself.

I Thought I Was Getting a Code Assistant—But I Got More

Then, AI came into my workflow. At first, I treated it like a sharper autocomplete—something to help write boilerplate, refactor code, or validate syntax. Useful, sure. Efficient, yes. But not transformative.

What I didn’t expect was the companionship it offered—
A partner that remembered our past discussions.
A pair programmer that worked when I did.
A teammate that wasn’t just answering questions, but proposing directions, challenging assumptions, and helping me make decisions I didn’t even know I needed to consider.

Always Available, Never Tired

There are nights when I’m deep in the weeds of a tricky design problem. Mornings when I wake up with a vague hunch about how to refactor a service layer. That’s when I fire up the conversation again—and my AI collaborator is right there, picking up where we left off.

No meeting. No ramp-up. No mental reset.
Just: “Here’s what I’m thinking.” And off we go.

The result isn’t just more output—it’s better decisions, made faster. A kind of flow state I haven’t felt in years.

Continuity Is a Superpower

The real breakthrough came one morning when I opened up an archived conversation. We had paused in the middle of a database change with far-reaching consequences. Normally, it would’ve taken me half an hour to reconstruct what I was thinking.

Instead, I scanned our last exchange and everything clicked. The reasoning, the implications, the next steps. I had my to-do list for the day before I even touched my keyboard.

That’s not a marginal productivity gain—that’s an exponential one.

It’s Not Just Code—It’s Conversation

Another surprise? My AI collaborator helped me tell the story of what I was building. It drafted social updates. It polished my writing. It took dense dev-speak and helped me communicate clearly with an audience.

As a solo builder, you don’t just ship features—you have to sell the vision. And this tool helped me stay articulate and consistent while keeping the momentum going on the technical side.

“Development Was More Fun Before AI”? Not for Me.

I read a tweet recently that said, “Development was more fun before AI.” It struck a chord with a lot of people—and got some pushback too.

But here’s what I think:

Either that person hasn’t fully integrated AI into their workflow,
Or they’ve never tried to build something that truly challenges them, in a domain where they have very little background.

Because I’ve done that kind of building—and it’s not fun. It’s frustrating. It’s full of blind spots, false starts, and research spirals. AI didn’t take the fun away from coding. It brought the joy back.

Final Thoughts

What I’ve gained is more than an efficiency tool.
It’s a co-pilot. A collaborator. A mirror I can bounce ideas off of at any hour.

And most importantly, it’s helped me reconnect with the part of me that loved programming before it became a job.

If you’re a serious builder who’s lost a bit of that spark—especially if you’ve been consulting or contracting for years—this may be the thing that gives it back to you.

Would I recommend this to other developers?
Absolutely.
Especially if you’ve been in the game long enough to forget why you got in.

About the Author

My name is Paul A. Jones Jr., and I am a software engineer and legal tech founder developing tools for professionals in law and other regulated industries. I write about systems thinking, modern workflows, and SaaS applications at PaulJonesSoftware.com. Follow me on Twitter: @PaulAJonesJr.