Programming has been a huge part of my life since middle school, especially systems-level work alongside math and physics. After graduating college, I started building a Game Boy emulator in C both as a personal challenge and as a portfolio project for finding a better job.
This week, though, I suddenly found myself unable to work on it. I've been feeling discouraged because projects that take me months to build can seemingly be produced much faster with AI tools, and that makes me worry that my work will be dismissed or seen as less valuable. I strongly oppose using AI for my own projects because it takes away the part of programming I enjoy.
Programming has always felt like my thing, so this has made me feel as if part of my identity is disappearing. I also enjoy video games, guitar, music production, and reading, but technical and scientific subjects are what I care about most. I'm not sure whether I'm overthinking this, experiencing burnout after graduation, or genuinely losing my passion. I also need to find a better job within the next year, which makes taking time away feel stressful. Is this reaction unreasonable, and what should I do?
4 Answers
It may help to stop treating programming as your entire identity. It can still be your favorite hobby without having to carry all of your self-worth, career pressure, and future plans at once. Take a little pressure off the emulator, set a small achievable goal when you return, and keep the job search separate from your personal need to enjoy coding.
This isn’t necessarily the end of your passion. Burnout after years of studying and pushing yourself is very common, especially after graduation. You may simply need a short, intentional break instead of forcing yourself to code every day. Spend a week or two on music, games, or something relaxing, then see whether the desire to work on the emulator comes back naturally.
Also, AI-assisted output isn’t the same thing as understanding. A person can generate a rough emulator quickly, but debugging it, explaining the hardware behavior, making design decisions, and extending it still require real knowledge. The skills you’re building haven’t become meaningless just because a tool can imitate some of the output.
Your audience may be part of the problem. People who don’t understand programming or security may dismiss work simply because they can’t recognize what went into it. Technical peers are more likely to appreciate the difficulty and the decisions behind the project.
You made the emulator, not an automated tool, and that experience is still yours. A portfolio project demonstrates persistence, debugging ability, low-level knowledge, and the ability to finish something complicated. Those qualities matter even if other people use different tools.
You’re allowed to avoid AI tools if using them conflicts with your values. You don’t have to adopt every new tool to prove that you belong in programming. At the same time, try to separate your moral objection to AI from the value of your own work. Someone else finishing faster doesn’t erase the satisfaction or knowledge you gained by doing it yourself.
For your job search, focus on being able to explain your code, tradeoffs, testing process, and what you learned. That is much more convincing than simply claiming a project was made without assistance.
I’m strongly opposed to using AI in my own work because it removes much of the enjoyment for me. I don’t think everyone who uses it is a bad person, but I want to keep my projects fully mine.
The comparison trap can make any hobby feel pointless if you focus only on speed and presentation. Try judging the project by what you learned and whether you enjoyed building it, rather than by how quickly somebody else can produce something similar.