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What's the deal with all the random weekly quota resets for agents lately?

minimaxir.com

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Re: What's the deal with all the random weekly quota resets for agents lately?

#53

They're giving everyone their next hit. What I read on social media about people and these resets gives off literal worst kind of addiction vibes. I've literally seen people talking about "Oh I had an existential crisis without Fable/GPT-5.6" These people legitimately need help, or alternatively a social life. Maybe its different on my end because I just use a sub outside of work for fun stuff. At work its not my mon…

Definitely, although there is a massive sampling bias: the minority of people who are in that state are also much more likely to post about it online.

Most likely (hopefully) 99% of users aren't like that and they'll just log off if quotas get slashed

Re: What's the deal with all the random weekly quota resets for agents lately?

#54
I think your hedonic treadmill's motor is close to burning out. Might be time to hop off for a bit.

edit: Ok, I have been reflecting for a bit. This article really irked me and I realize now it's because I see a lot of a former version of myself in it.

Anyhow, to the author, I implore you to take a step back and look at what your mind is doing. Humans love prediction, and we love optimization, I get it. But, you're effectively rewriting history, and holding yourself to an impossible standard of perfectly optimizing past decisions with future information. As a result, you're sucking the joy out of pursuit that you seem to love.

I know it's easier said than done to not have your mind work against you like this. But, I think you might benefit from taking a step back and asking what your actual goals are in the work you're doing, and what sufficient value to justify the $100/mo subscription looks like in terms of output or work. Playing the token consumption optimization game is a losing battle that has turned a free gift into a source of angst.

Re: What's the deal with all the random weekly quota resets for agents lately?

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Theoretically it'll still happen tomorrow. But we'll see--I think they've extended it twice?

My understanding is that they are no longer threatening to do it, it's part of the Max plan now (which I use.) The $20/month subscribers might still have to pay as they go, though.

As one of them, I'm just gonna buy another $20 subscription to OpenAI and use Sol while that's available. Why on earth would I do anything else? Fable is not magical enough to pay for credits for it with the current competition.

Re: What's the deal with all the random weekly quota resets for agents lately?

#56
It's a weird thing to optimize for. If you care about availability for work you can just pay more where it feels limitless and never look at the limits. I think a lot of people have a tendency to want to minmax as a "game". I also occasionally have the urge to do it but then realize it's a means to an end, not the end itself. I would feel good having maximised usage even if it wasn't productive usage which is irrational.

I think the main problem is the usage limits. You would never feel like you are saving money by watching movies on Netflix. If they didn't have limits, many might find themselves using agents less actually.

Re: What's the deal with all the random weekly quota resets for agents lately?

#58

My guess is they are getting folks used to the idea of: 1. The end of unlimited token subsidization and a new status quo of metered usage limits. 2. Adding to the above, self-initiated usage limit resets give you some control and again help lessen the sting of the end of subsidization. Right now though, I think Anthropic and OpenAI are in open MAU war ahead of their respective IPOs and that might be a bigger factor.

Are you saying that because they are ending subsidies, they are giving more subsidies?

Re: What's the deal with all the random weekly quota resets for agents lately?

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The desire to "not waste money" and "get back to even" seems like a huge part of what motivates gamblers to keep gambling. As someone who had family members go through gambling addiction this is the primary mechanism behind it. Addicts don't see it as "cool fun dopamine kicks" but instead find it the only way they can get back to normal/where they are supposed to be

That seems like an incomplete explanation. Logically, gambling is like going to the movies. You expect to pay x currency for y value of entertainment. If y falls short of expectations you might feel like you wasted your money, but who becomes addicted to going to the movies to try to get even? There is probably someone who has, but I’ve never heard of it and it doesn’t seem to be common; not like gambling addictions.…

From what I've heard from gambling addicts (thankfully this is not something I'm prone to), there is something about the actual process of gambling that makes it addictive beyond the loss/reward system.

People who are really into roulette get a buzz off seeing the wheel spin, hearing the ball bouncing etc.

Probably that comes after the initial addiction to the reward function but it then strongly reinforces it.

I don't think there's an equivalent for paying to watch a movie because the time to payoff (or not) is too long and the sensory experience is too inconsistent to elicit a conditioned place preference.

LLMs on the other hand... the time to payoff is shorter and the experience is consistent every time. It's just lacking the tactile/sensory elements

Re: What's the deal with all the random weekly quota resets for agents lately?

#60

My guess is they are getting folks used to the idea of: 1. The end of unlimited token subsidization and a new status quo of metered usage limits. 2. Adding to the above, self-initiated usage limit resets give you some control and again help lessen the sting of the end of subsidization. Right now though, I think Anthropic and OpenAI are in open MAU war ahead of their respective IPOs and that might be a bigger factor.

My impression is that, particularly on Anthropic's side, their confusing approach to quota limits is an intentional attempt to make the actual limits or offerings more opaque. This will make it easier to limit quota without officially limiting quota, because the current real-world quota is a result of bonus offerings, limited-time access, and random resets.

So it's not that "limits went down"; it's that "the bonus offer ended as planned."

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