> my best ideas often happen when knee deep in some codebase

I notice that I get into this automatically during AI-assisted coding sessions if I don't lower my standards for the code. Eventually, I need to interact very closely with both the AI and the code, which feels similar to what you describe when coding manually.

I also notice I'm fresher because I'm not using many brainscycles to do legwork- so maybe I'm actually getting into more situations where I'm getting good ideas because I'm tackling hard problems.

So maybe the key to using AI and staying sharp is to refuse to sacrifice your good taste.