Is AI Making You Exhausted?

I noticed my personal feeling of using LLMs and GenAI too much, that I get exhausted pretty quickly. Less satisfied with what I achieved or have written. Before, I worked hard, and when an article came together, after hardship, not fitting, tinkering with it, at some point it was right. This feeling, an inner instinct: yep, now it’s good.

That one went away when asking AI too much: “Is the structure OK?”, “What should I add more?”, etc. I might end up writing about something AI suggested that I initially found good, but that isn’t in the finished product a couple of days later.

So today, I try to go back to Writing Manually and only use it when I’m finished with a good draft for grammar checks and fact checks. But for coding and websites, I still use a more AI-first approach. I have more thoughts at Vibe Coding.

A questions that I found interesting raised on Linkedin:

Does reading AI slop actually make you tired? David Krevitt at LinkedIn

YES! I believe that instead of giving you energy from reading, which usually brings you joy, reading AI-generated content uses a lot of brain power and makes you tired.

GenAI text is very vague and hard to follow. Also, I think it’s more general AI, not only text reading, even reading code or anything generated, as it’s real work to read and digest. Remember, we didn’t even finish or manage to read our “Read Later/ReadWise” highlights, now we get constantly added “generated” text added to our stack to read. I think it’s true.

Others who publicly shared their opinions.

Typecraft shared an emotional video about why he almost quit YouTube and lost his fun, as AI took away the fun part of his coding work- the creative part. I almost quit YouTube…. here’s what happened - YouTube.

Now he works at PlanetScale and makes videos. I found it very encouraging. We all feel something along the lines of AI and this new wave. Especially as a dad and with the responsibilities we have, it’s not easy. I love that you came around, and for sure, it’s not easy sailing, but sometimes times like this open up a new perspective, and it’s needed. Great to people to share it, keep nerding out, and do something you love. Thanks ^842d21

ThePrimeagen is tired of vibe coding: Tweet - I think it explains very well what I had as well, but with writing, that’s why Manual Writing for me:

I am tired of vibing on stream. I dont really like vibe coding unless its a tool i have no desire to build (how i manage things on my stream / how i write my youtube videos are great examples of things i would never build but i have). I dont like vibing the things i care about. I hate the code it generates, i hate the feeling of getting everything i ask for and nothing i want. I hate the subtle offness around vibe coded things. It is just driving me nuts. So for the next while i am going to be done vibing on stream.

I genuinely have been trying my hardest to make this work and i cannot quite put a finger on why i hate it, but i do. And i just feel so horribly guilty and wrong because i am not getting the results of “everyone else on twitter.”

How am i, someone who prides themselves on making youtube videos that i think are actually good for people. To make videos that help people laugh at the silliness of tech or learn something new. But here i am not able to keep up with all these people claiming the sky is literally coming down. I just feel horrible and guilty about it.

Now i know the world is changing fast, and i want to be able to understand that change super well, be able to talk about it, be able to give really accurate opinions about it so for the last 3 months i have vibe coded an absurd amount of things. But now… i am just tired of it.

I dont want this any more. I want to be a tradcoder.

I dont know why i told everyone this, but i just have this growing sickness that is just eating me alive around vibing and i dont know how to express it.

AI Doesn’t Reduce Work—It Intensifies It

In this video, Scott explores both the negative and positive mental health effects of AI coding, with data and expert commentary about The True Cost of AI Coding - YouTube:

• Generative AI and its Addiction
• AI Summarization

Origin: Vibe Coding
References: AI addiction