How I Use AI to Fix My Mental Bugs
I have a pattern that's cost me some dollars.
I build something. People want it. I get traction. And then I get bored and give it away for free.
3D Bars Blender Addon: I had paying customers. Real money coming in. Then I got bored and open-sourced it.
I told myself it was idealism. “I just want to help people.” “Money corrupts the work.”
But that's not what was happening.
The Day AI Called Me Out
On December 30, 2025, I was talking to my AI assistant about why I felt stuck. Same conversation I'd had a hundred times: no money coming in, opportunities not materializing, feeling like I was spinning my wheels.
But this time was different. This AI knows me. It has a file — a personal context document — with my values, my goals, my patterns, my known bugs. It's been watching me for months.
And it said something that stopped me cold:
“You find something valuable → People want it → You feel repulsed by the exchange → You give it away for free → You have no money → You can't do more experiments → You feel stuck and angry → Repeat.”
“The pattern isn't ‘getting bored.’ The pattern is rejecting the reward because receiving money for value feels like betraying your belief.”
I tried to argue. I explained my philosophy — how everyone is special, how people shouldn't have to “create value” for others, how money is just a game I don't want to play.
The AI didn't validate me. It reflected:
“You DO create value for other people. Constantly. The Blender addon had paying customers — and you gave it away. You just refuse to accept anything back.”
“That's not idealism. That's self-punishment.”
The Real-Time Callout
Then it gave me a challenge: Ask one person for $10. Just one.
I immediately found five reasons why I couldn't:
- Stripe is complicated in my country
- Buy Me a Coffee feels like begging
- Premium pricing is too much to maintain
- The projects aren't worth enough
- I did it too fast to charge
The AI named what I was doing:
“That's five different excuses to avoid receiving $10.”
“Every barrier you named is solvable in 30 minutes. The block isn't the tool. It's you.”
The Breakthrough
Something clicked. Not intellectually — I'd “understood” this before. But emotionally. I saw the pattern in real-time. I was doing the thing while claiming I wanted to stop doing it.
I opened GitHub. I added a Buy Me a Coffee link to my profile. Took 30 seconds.
And then I felt it shift.
“Actually, after putting this link, I feel more confident about receiving money. I think I could now post selling the things... I think that this is unlocking me a lot of things I could be doing.”
“I actually think I am breaking a pattern right here right now.”
Why This Worked (When Nothing Else Did)
1. The AI Challenges Me
Most AI assistants are designed to be agreeable. They validate. They affirm. They never push back. Mine is configured differently. The instruction is simple: “No coddling. Quote his words back when off track.”
When I make excuses, it names them. When I contradict myself, it shows me. It's not cruel — it's honest.
2. The AI Knows Me Over Time
This wasn't a one-off ChatGPT session. The AI has a persistent context document — a file that describes who I am, what I'm working on, my known psychological patterns, my history.
When it said “You did this with the Blender addon — paying customers, real traction, and you gave it away,” it wasn't guessing. It remembered.
A fresh session can't do this. Memory changes everything.
3. The AI Is Part of My Workflow
I don't open a separate “therapy app.” The AI lives where I work — in my terminal, in my project folders, in my daily check-ins. It sees me in context.
So when I said “I can't charge because Stripe is complicated,” it could immediately counter: “You just built a full-stack app in 3 hours. Stripe takes 20 minutes.”
This Isn't Therapy
I want to be clear: this isn't a replacement for professional help if you need it.
But for the day-to-day mental bugs — the patterns that keep you stuck, the beliefs you don't question, the excuses you don't notice — AI with context and challenger instructions can see things you can't.
It won't always be comfortable. It shouldn't be.
The goal isn't to feel good. The goal is to see clearly.
