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AI fatigue is real and nobody talks about it

siddhantkhare.com

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Re: AI fatigue is real and nobody talks about it

#81

Post by sidk24 »

srameshc wrote: post #59
sidk24 wrote: post #2

Author here. Not an anti-AI post. It's about the cognitive cost - faster tasks lead to more tasks, reviewing AI output all day causes decision fatigue, and the tool landscape churns weekly. Wrote about what actually helped. Curious if others are hitting similar walls.

Great post, I certainly feel you. Not just the anxiety but the need to push myself more and accomplish more now that I have some help. Setting right expectations and what is more practical and not every "AI magic post" is worth the attention, has helped me by not being anxious and with the FOMO.

Thanks I've started doing it now, still needs to work on it. Thanks for the tip though, i hope it is working well for you!!

Re: AI fatigue is real and nobody talks about it

#82

Post by alex_c »

parpfish wrote: post #18

For me the fatigue is a little different— it’s the constant switching between doing a little bit of work/coding/reviewing and then stopping to wait for the llm to generate something. The waits are unpredictable length, so you never know if you should wait or switch to a new task. So you just do something to kill a little time while the machine thinks. You never get into a flow state and you feel worn down from this c…

I joke that I'm on the "Claude Code workout plan" now.

Standing desk, while it's working I do a couple squats or pushups or just wander around the house to stretch my legs. Much more enjoyable than sitting at my desk, hands on keyboard, all day long. And taking my eyes off the screen also makes it easier to think about the next thing.

Moving around does help, but even so, the mental fatigue is real!

Re: AI fatigue is real and nobody talks about it

#83

Post by billylo »

bob_theslob646 wrote: post #12
simonw wrote: post #5

I really feel this. I can make meaningful progress on half a dozen projects in the course of a day now but I end the day exhausted . I've had conversations with people recently who are losing sleep because they're finding building yet another feature with "just one more prompt" irresistible. Decades of intuition about sustainable working practices just got disrupted. It's going to take a while and some discipline to…

Throw in the fact that clawdbot can work 24/7. It reminds me of why people wanted financial markets to be 24/7. We as a society should probably take a look at that otherwise it may lead to burnout in a not so small percentage of people

We should ask how the traders manage this. It's essentially 24/7 markets in the world. For them, the FOMO effects are even stronger... actual money earning opportunity.

Re: AI fatigue is real and nobody talks about it

#84

Post by falcor84 »

onraglanroad wrote: post #9

That's what increasing productivity means. You are working harder to increase the unearned income of "investors". That's the way society is set up.

I don't get this sentiment. If you don't want investors to give you any input, don't take money from investors. With a Claude Max subscription, it's cheaper than ever to develop a product entirely by yourself or with a couple of friends, if that's what you prefer to do.

Re: AI fatigue is real and nobody talks about it

#85

Post by dangus »

I think the fatigue is that the technology has been hyped since long before today when it’s actually started to become somewhat useful.

And even today when it’s useful, it’s really most useful for very specific domains like coding.

It’s not been impressive at all with other applications. Just chat with your local AI chat bot when you call customer service.

For example, I watch a YouTube channel where this guy calls up car dealerships to negotiate car deals and some of them have purchased AI receptionist solutions. They’re essentially worse than a simple “press 1 for sales” menu and have essentially zero business value.

Another example, I switched to a cheap phone plan MVNO that uses AI chat as its first line of defense. All it did was act as a natural language search engine for a small selection of FAQ pages, and to actually do anything you needed to find the right button to get a human.

These two examples of technology were not worth the hype. We can blame those businesses all day long but at the end of the day I can’t imagine those businesses are going to be impressed with the results of the tech long term. Those car dealerships won’t sell more cars because of it, my phone plan won’t avoid customer service interactions because of it.

In theory, these AI systems should easily be able to be plugged in to do some basic operations that actually save these businesses from hiring people.

The cellular provider should be able to have the AI chatbot make real adjustments to your account, even if they’re minor.

The car dealership bot should be able to set the customer up in the CMS by collecting basic contact info, and maybe should be able to send a basic quote on a vehicle stock number before negotiations begin.

But in practice, these AI systems aren’t providing significant value to these businesses. Companies like Taco Bell can’t even replace humans taking food orders despite the language capabilities of AI.

Re: AI fatigue is real and nobody talks about it

#86

Post by shevy-java »

> If you're an engineer who uses AI daily - for design reviews, code generation, debugging, documentation, architecture decisions - and you've noticed that you're somehow more tired than before AI existed, this post is for you.

AI is not good for human health - we have it here.

Re: AI fatigue is real and nobody talks about it

#87

Post by jwarden »

parpfish wrote: post #18

For me the fatigue is a little different— it’s the constant switching between doing a little bit of work/coding/reviewing and then stopping to wait for the llm to generate something. The waits are unpredictable length, so you never know if you should wait or switch to a new task. So you just do something to kill a little time while the machine thinks. You never get into a flow state and you feel worn down from this c…

It’s like being a manager.

Re: AI fatigue is real and nobody talks about it

#88

Post by zozbot234 »

parpfish wrote: post #18

For me the fatigue is a little different— it’s the constant switching between doing a little bit of work/coding/reviewing and then stopping to wait for the llm to generate something. The waits are unpredictable length, so you never know if you should wait or switch to a new task. So you just do something to kill a little time while the machine thinks. You never get into a flow state and you feel worn down from this c…

You're supposed to write a detailed spec first (ask the AI for help with that part of the job too!) so that it's less likely to go off track when writing the code. Then just ask it to write the code and switch to something else. Review the result when the work is done. The spec then becomes part of your documentation.

Re: AI fatigue is real and nobody talks about it

#89

Post by parpfish »

ericmcer wrote: post #63
parpfish wrote: post #18

For me the fatigue is a little different— it’s the constant switching between doing a little bit of work/coding/reviewing and then stopping to wait for the llm to generate something. The waits are unpredictable length, so you never know if you should wait or switch to a new task. So you just do something to kill a little time while the machine thinks. You never get into a flow state and you feel worn down from this c…

Seriously and beyond productivity, flow state was what I liked most about the job. A cup of coffee and noise cancelling headphones and a 2 hour locked in session were when I felt most in love with programming.

I love the flow state, and I’m pretty sure it’s fundamentally incompatible with prompting. For me, when the flow state kicks in, it’s completely nonverbal and my inner dialogue shuts up. I think that’s part of why it feels so cool and fun when it hits.

But LLM prompting requires you to constantly engage with language processing to summarize and review the problem.

Re: AI fatigue is real and nobody talks about it

#90

Post by idopmstuff »

> The reason is simple once you see it, but it took me months to figure out. When each task takes less time, you don't do fewer tasks. You do more tasks.

> AI reduces the cost of production but increases the cost of coordination, review, and decision-making. And those costs fall entirely on the human.

The combination of these two facts is why I'm so glad I quit my job a couple of years ago and started my own business. I'm a one-man show and having so much fun using AI as I run things.

Long term, it definitely feels like AI is going to drive company sizes down and lead to a greater prevalence of SMBs, since they get all the benefits with few of the downsides.

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