A UC Berkeley researcher co-authored a study that raises profound questions about how we interact with artificial intelligence in education — and daily life.
Anecdotally, I have software I wrote entirely by hand, started by hand and ended with ai, and AI from the start. Anything I had ai touch in the last 6 months has caused this for me. I barely have the attention span to read what the agent is planning to do. I can only conceptually review at a high level and direct it that way. It gets worse every week.
I think part of it is me not spending enough time setting things up so it writes code like I would, so I am reading a strangers code really. But even then, I find myself reading it for no more than 10 seconds and being like “ugh just ask the AI”.
I have caught myself a few times about to ask the AI to change something that I could easily do myself still.
I know that if I stopped using it for a week and sat down with the code I had generated, I would understand it, but the thought of doing so has somehow become exhausting. It’s a real issue.
It sounds like you enjoy coding more then managing.
Not enjoying something is going to lead to no attention span related to that thing after all.
Which is a pet theory why I think so many software guys and long time Linux users say this.
Fundamentally it’s just not fun. It’s not interesting. Even if the AI can produce perfectly fine and working code. It’s not great cose, but it’s also not buggy in a way that gives you challenges to solves problems to understand.
Ai is just mundane. It removes the enjoyment form computers in exchange for mediocrity and functionality. It works “well enough”. And that is more of a sin then anything else when it comes to long term engagement.
Personally I can stare at a prompt for 8 hours straight and debug and improve the harness, the system, the thing it makes, manage it, fiddle with its memory set up, make entire new workflows or systems for it.
The actual product it makes tho? Boring and I tend to forget about them a week later.
The process is boring as fuck to most people AND what it makes is boring.
So either you need to find the process fun, or make something with it you actually personally use day to day.
I had the same problem with 3d printers. They are cool as fuck. But the stuff I made was… Meh cause it wasn’t useful I just made it cause I could.
Anecdotally, I have software I wrote entirely by hand, started by hand and ended with ai, and AI from the start. Anything I had ai touch in the last 6 months has caused this for me. I barely have the attention span to read what the agent is planning to do. I can only conceptually review at a high level and direct it that way. It gets worse every week.
I think part of it is me not spending enough time setting things up so it writes code like I would, so I am reading a strangers code really. But even then, I find myself reading it for no more than 10 seconds and being like “ugh just ask the AI”.
I have caught myself a few times about to ask the AI to change something that I could easily do myself still.
I know that if I stopped using it for a week and sat down with the code I had generated, I would understand it, but the thought of doing so has somehow become exhausting. It’s a real issue.
It sounds like you enjoy coding more then managing.
Not enjoying something is going to lead to no attention span related to that thing after all.
Which is a pet theory why I think so many software guys and long time Linux users say this.
Fundamentally it’s just not fun. It’s not interesting. Even if the AI can produce perfectly fine and working code. It’s not great cose, but it’s also not buggy in a way that gives you challenges to solves problems to understand.
Ai is just mundane. It removes the enjoyment form computers in exchange for mediocrity and functionality. It works “well enough”. And that is more of a sin then anything else when it comes to long term engagement.
Personally I can stare at a prompt for 8 hours straight and debug and improve the harness, the system, the thing it makes, manage it, fiddle with its memory set up, make entire new workflows or systems for it.
The actual product it makes tho? Boring and I tend to forget about them a week later.
The process is boring as fuck to most people AND what it makes is boring.
So either you need to find the process fun, or make something with it you actually personally use day to day.
I had the same problem with 3d printers. They are cool as fuck. But the stuff I made was… Meh cause it wasn’t useful I just made it cause I could.