Edit wiki/ai-rot.md — Rookie Mistakes & Gotchas

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# AI rot

## what happened

AI rotting is such a thing — watch out for it. so easy to get sucked in, need to have breaks at like 10-minute intervals.

## why it's a gotcha

when you're deep in an AI-assisted coding session and things are breaking, your instinct is to keep prompting. "fix this." "try again." "what about this approach." hours pass. you haven't thought independently in a long time. your brain goes into passive consumption mode — you're not problem-solving anymore, you're just reacting to outputs. and when things are working, you feel productive, but you might not actually understand what was built. that's where [[ai-assisted-imposter-syndrome]] creeps in — the confidence erosion that follows.

## the fix

set a timer. every 10-15 minutes, step away from the screen for even 60 seconds. ask yourself: do i understand what just happened? can i explain this code without looking at it? if not, you're rotting. especially when things are breaking — that's when you most need to step away and think, not keep prompting. and whatever you build in an AI session, [[test-demo-before-presenting|test it end-to-end]] before you trust it. wrong assumptions compound fast, whether they're yours or the AI's — just ask anyone who's lived through an [[esp32-debugging-saga|ESP32 debugging marathon]].