The human cost of 10x: How AI is physically breaking senior engineers
1–10 of 78 posts
Re: The human cost of 10x: How AI is physically breaking senior engineers
#2Is there any publication which demonstrates that the improvement is really 10x?
Re: The human cost of 10x: How AI is physically breaking senior engineers
#3Somebody doesnt know how to regulate their pace, and then various burnout symptoms happen.
Not everybody pushes themselves like that, nor should, its anything but healthy and sustainable. In my experience it takes... rather obsessed people, ocd or similar traits, maybe 2 out of 10 intensity of their disease. Highly functional, smart, yet unbalanced.
Llms just allow this spiral to go further, while human limits remain the same. Each of us creates our own path, dont mess it up just because you can. Your employer doesnt care much about you at the end, just another cog in machine but health once damaged may not bounce back, ever
Re: The human cost of 10x: How AI is physically breaking senior engineers
#4Is there any publication which demonstrates that the improvement is really 10x?
It's like "decimate" -you would think 10x had literal force, but it's more figurative. It just means "moar"
(decimate had specific literal intent. Now it's just a force modifier like bigly)
Re: The human cost of 10x: How AI is physically breaking senior engineers
#5I feel this is not discussed enough. I can attest to this 100%.
Just the past weekend, I was talking with a very senior engineer (~distinguished engineer at a very large tech co) who basically said he's working 8-8-6 (8 am - 8 pm, 6 days/week), "writing code" (more like supervising 8-15 agents) for a product demo in 2 weeks, which otherwise would have taken at least 1 quarter's worth of time with a small team. He's zonked out, fwiw. There are no junior engineers in the team ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, most having been laid off a few months ago.
The toll it takes, and the expectations of AI-driven productivity, have only increased dramatically. At some point, the reality will hit the remaining engg team. Not sure if the company or its leadership realizes, but so far, it's all-AI, all-the-time, human cost of productivity be damned.
Re: The human cost of 10x: How AI is physically breaking senior engineers
#6Somebody doesnt know how to regulate their pace, and then various burnout symptoms happen. Not everybody pushes themselves like that, nor should, its anything but healthy and sustainable. In my experience it takes... rather obsessed people, ocd or similar traits, maybe 2 out of 10 intensity of their disease. Highly functional, smart, yet unbalanced. Llms just allow this spiral to go further, while human limits remain…
And sometimes they do build interesting things but also leave a trail of destruction behind them. It reminds me of ‘moving fast break things’.
Re: The human cost of 10x: How AI is physically breaking senior engineers
#7Somebody doesnt know how to regulate their pace, and then various burnout symptoms happen. Not everybody pushes themselves like that, nor should, its anything but healthy and sustainable. In my experience it takes... rather obsessed people, ocd or similar traits, maybe 2 out of 10 intensity of their disease. Highly functional, smart, yet unbalanced. Llms just allow this spiral to go further, while human limits remain…
Given the research cited in the article it seems bigger than an anecdote about one guy who doesn't know how to do work life balance
70%+ saying that AI has increased their workload AND that they are burning out because is it.
Re: The human cost of 10x: How AI is physically breaking senior engineers
#8[deleted]
Re: The human cost of 10x: How AI is physically breaking senior engineers
#9I feel this is not discussed enough. I can attest to this 100%. Just the past weekend, I was talking with a very senior engineer (~distinguished engineer at a very large tech co) who basically said he's working 8-8-6 (8 am - 8 pm, 6 days/week), "writing code" (more like supervising 8-15 agents) for a product demo in 2 weeks, which otherwise would have taken at least 1 quarter's worth of time with a small team. He's z…
> more like supervising 8-15 agents
How do they do it? (My own record is 5 agents, but it is not typical). Do they use gastown or something?
Re: The human cost of 10x: How AI is physically breaking senior engineers
#10> The industry calls this “10x productivity.” I call it what it is: a system that generates output at machine speed and forces humans to process it at biological speed.
The question is can you tolerate the amount of PRs thrown at you per day on top of reviewing the exponentially growing mess of code that continues to double every hour and being paid less for it.
Just learn to say no and leave. Why do you tolerate the increasing comprehension debt that is loaded on to you.
You will never get that time back. Just give it to someone else that thinks it is worth maintaining that slop for less.