I have found a few of my friends doing the same, and I have used AI on occasion. What I would suggest as someone who went through post secondary education without AI is to limit it, and see it as a tool. You can use it for more than code generation. I've used it to lay out plans in formats I don't care to learn, but work well with CLI tools, help with debugging, and generate trivial code, like boilerplate or refactors. I admittedly am a bit of coding addict, so your mileage may vary, but i do think that it can help adjust the challenge you deal with, and, by that, give you the sense of achievement that will build a lasting joy from the process.

For Java? No equivalent. Honestly it's kinda embarrassing how good Intellij was when I used it, at least compared to the alternatives. For other languages, depends on how much work you're able to accept. Vim can be a large upfront cost in work, but a tailor fit result may be worth it. Them again, I will admit that I prefer the IDE (where applicable) stay minimal.

I have no formal basis for this, but I imagine that it has to do with kerning, the way the letters are shaped, and us just being used to reading them in a specific format. I suspect that the format is treated as 'aesthetic' to our brains, and breaking it annoys some small part of our brains.

Guess Tim Curry was wrong.

It's an acer. It wasn't in for a good life.

You know what? That thing commands respect.

"The experiment is the experiment".