This is just my opinion so maybe im describing something other than what you are observing.

This was me, until I got AI. Now im building cool stuff that I never would have built (but also slowly destroying what little skill I had and not knowing much about the underlying code). Of the code I do know about well, I am fixing and improving my old code and being amazed (but probably not deeply learning) with new tricks and techniques. The focus on setup to me was always my mind playing a trick on me. The AI reduced the "hump" I need to cross so I just try it. Its really another form of perfecting your setup.

Focusing on the setup for some might be a way to avoid the hard thinking part that comes with immense practice and focus. Its a hump everyone has to cross. It comes easier to some but not others. I remember doing exactly this when I was unemployed traveling Europe wanting to get into a software engineering role after being boxed into a QA testing role for years. I was a CS grad and did this same stuff in college to my detriment(thats how I ended up in QA I guess). I paid for InterviewCake and spent countless days in European hostels and cafes doing nonsense like perfecting my setup or editor instead of focusing deeply on the problem set. This might also be a symptom of ADHD. Recently started medication and the immense change in productivity has recently made me weep that I wasted half my life doing things like perfecting my setup instead of actually doing something.

I think the downvotes are for saying positive things about AI. HN doesn't like that ;)

And yes, messing about with skills is the new messing around with setup. It's a rabbit hole.

I'm a massive, massive, believer in The Cult of Done [0] especially "the point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done". Allowing myself to finish something badly so that I can move on to the next thing was a game-changer for me. And, of course, I found out that it doesn't have to be what I would call perfect for others to appreciate it. Getting something shipped is way, way more important than getting something perfect, and often my procrastination around the fear that it wasn't perfect was stopping either.

[0] https://medium.com/@bre/the-cult-of-done-manifesto-724ca1c2f...