I Spent 2025 Obsessed with AI. Here’s Why I’m Going Back to “Slow Coding” in 2026

I’m don’t regret that but I don’t want it to continue into 2026. I’ve had a good play with AI and the tools available, I think I’ve got a good idea about what it is, what it can do and where it can be useful but it’s time to take my attention back.

Therefore, I am going to revert back to “old skool” tutorials. In 2025 the video tutorial died a death thanks to AI. However, personally I think the only learning you get with AI is “Shallow Learning”.

I don’t like this.

Once again, I had to learn that there are no shortcuts. If you want to learn something deeply, you have to put the work in.

With that being said, these are my goals for 2026 in Software.

Go Deep On The Go Programming Language

I started this course https://dreamsofcode.io/courses in Go at the end of 2025. It’s a fantastic course that goes much deeper into the Go language than I initially realised.

I found myself really enjoying the “Slow Learning” approach again. My brain is only capable of learning new information at a certain rate and for it to really stick I need to repeat stuff over and over.

I am using the Zed editor when going through this course and I have AI turned off. To be typing out all the code yourself has been surprisingly therapeutic for me. It’s made me realise why I fell in love with coding in the first place.

Along with this I will complete some courses on Boot.dev. I’m not entirely convinced I like the whole gamification approach to learning a coding language but the courses actually look really interesting. For example the Learn HTTP Servers in Go.

The whole idea for this goal is to add a second language alongside JS/TS to my portfolio where I have a deep understanding.

Revamp Neovim With Opencode

I have used Neovim quite a bit in the past and really enjoyed the experience. However, it was a steep learning curve to setup and configure.

I ended up taking pieces of config from many different developers like Adib Hanna and Josean Martinez. This left me with a bit of a mess, some error messages I just couldn’t get rid of and an incomplete setup.

Last year was completely taken over for me by Cursor. It really worked for me as it did for many developers, I just couldn’t get enough of those productivity gains.

There is just too many people and too much money involved in that project and they seem to be going down the route of trying to please all users. This will end up in not pleasing anyone. Most of all — developers.

Therefore, I am already looking to bring Neovim back into my setup. I love Vim motions! However, this time I will go with Lazyvim using the ever useful Devops Toolbox as my guide.

I’ve reached the point now where I just want a working editor and to use the defaults set by wiser people than me.

Along with that I am going to try and introduce OpenCode into my setup. There is no denying it. AI is a really useful tool if used well. I also found that Claude code’s Opus 4.5 really suited my work and style so I will be using that as my main model.

My whole goal here is to move away from Cursor (as I think it will have too many bells and whistles as 2026 progresses) without losing the productivity gains that AI can give you.

Let’s see.

Optimisation in React

I work on complex React applications in my day to day work and found myself in many situations where the apps I was working on were becoming laggy.

I made progress in 2025 for aquiring optimisation techniques but I think I can go deeper into this area. Specific areas of focus include:

• Learning the React Profiler deeply and how to really use it in effective ways.
• Learning how to review an app in terms of performance and work out where the biggest gains can be made.
• Read up on the new compiler used in React 19. I tried it out on one app already and saw big performance gains just from using that. I want to know more about the inner workings of this.

Ultimately I want to come away with a methodology and approach to optimise any React application.

Tanstack Start

I was introduced to Tanstack Start in 2025. I really liked it. Compared to Nextjs it was a breath of fresh air.

As it’s now out of Beta I want to try building a few hobby apps with it in 2026 to get to know the api really well.

A few ideas I have are:

• An app for recording my day to day habits and if I do them or not — not eating sugar, having just one coffee, going for a run etc. To track over time and hopefully gain insights into why I stick to habits sometimes and why I don’t.
• A remake on the React Devtools Chrome Extension (not sure if Tanstack is the right tool here tbh) but I would like a way to better view the current component tree and current state.

The main outcome of this goal is to become more familiar with the TanStack Start api and file based routing.

Create Own AI Model

This one is more of a fun one if I have time and a little extra cash. It is inspired by this video from Typecraft.

I have not used any Ollama models yet and feel this could be a great opportunity to try it out. It also would allow me to try out Linux as it’s getting so much love at the moment, I feel I must be missing out on something.

This is more of a hobby goal, something to try out for fun and in my experience these usually lead to something else. No expectations here, just following my curiosity.

Take Sunday Completely Off

This could be one of my most important goals of the year. I discovered this idea at the end of 2025. I was becoming quite drained at the end of the year and my enthusiasm for coding was waning.

I thought it could be a lack of rest as the productivity gains brought about from AI obviously has a dark side.

I decided to see what would happen if I took one day off a week instead of a longer holiday. I mean completely off — No coding, no computer, no Youtube, no Medium (I don’t do any social media anyway). The result surprised me. I came back each Monday feeling really fresh, much more than I thought.

Therefore, I want to continue this habit through 2026 as I think it will help with being able to sustain my levels during the whole year.

Rest is as important as work.

Conclusion

If I had to some up my goals from 2026 into one sentence it would be “Back to basics and go deeper whilst keeping an eye on AI”.

AI is great and it’s changed the software game, up until a point. You still need to know the fundamentals and you need to know what AI is doing for you. You can’t ignore AI but you can’t rely on it either.

As corny as it sounds, it’s still true — The journey is more important than the destination. I lose time when I am coding, it’s the only thing I have really found in life where this happens and for me that is a clear sign I am fully engaged and I really enjoy it.

I don’t want to lose that just for the sake of productivity. These goals are set up to achieve that.

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