I Ditched VS Code for a Terminal. My RAM Thanked Me.

My VS Code setup used to eat 4GB of RAM before I even opened a file. Extensions, integrated terminal, GitHub Copilot, a couple of preview panes -- and suddenly my MacBook fan sounds like it's preparing for takeoff. I lived with it for years because, well, what's the alternative? Turns out, the alternative is better than I expected. The Shift Nobody Predicted Here's what changed: I stopped writing most of my code. Not because I quit programming -- because AI agents started writing it for me. Between Claude Code, Cursor's Composer, and Codex, my job shifted from "person who types code" to "person who reads code and decides if it's right." And once you realize you're spending 80% of your time reading, reviewing, and navigating -- not editing -- the question becomes: do I really need a full IDE for that? The honest answer is no. A heavyweight IDE makes sense when editing is your primary activity. When your primary activity is running agents, reading their output, and browsing files to veri