Ask HN: Does your mind drift while waiting for AI prompts to finish?
1•cryptoSympozium•1h ago
I've been a software engineer for 9 years now, and I noticed a very new weirdness in my workflows. Once I finish the architecture of a project and i have my context engineering prompt ready, I hit SEND, and then is just void lol. I have realized that between that time of waiting till AI is done, my mind drifts, I go use other apps, search random stuff and if AI fucks things up I go back and forth supervising it. I feel like this whole experience has generated some kind of fatigue and comes with a lot of cognitive overload. Do you folks face that too? How is it affecting you ?
Comments
physicsguy•1h ago
I come to HN...
cryptoSympozium•1h ago
haha fair. HN takes the pain away i guess
shaunpud•1h ago
This is how people work now?
cryptoSympozium•1h ago
Well I guess so. AI is not really an option anymore. it is pushed inside most of the companies. Im currently in a big blockchain company leading an engineering team.
lebronocta•1h ago
> time of waiting till AI is done
So you are saying that you are not running multiple shit in parallel?
cryptoSympozium•43m ago
lol sometimes yes. but what im saying is about the side effect of this idle-but-not-so-idle moment.
lionelgarnier•59m ago
Yes, often working on several topics in parallel (usualy 3 to 4) and that's a big mental effort to switch from one to the other, also drifting from some priority topics to useless stuff...
I never really step back on that but I agree that this is a real problem that can lead to inefficiency
"Flibbertigibbeting" and "Beboppin" are the new i'm waiting for it to compile, but while the binary outcome of compilation (either it compiles or it doesn't) keeps your head in the game, the open-endedness of a Claude response can be disorienting after you've come back from the YouTube/Reddit wormhole -- like how on Monday you ask yourself wtf you were doing on Friday. But it's just a matter of time before prompting is as fast as Googling... and then it's off to collecting UBI!
cryptoSympozium•31m ago
hah legend of a comment. and i agree regarding the open-endedness, it never settles it, and because it doesn't give you a concrete answer you are drawn into replying back and the infinite loop begins. Yeah, Elon said it is the great thing in the world, the UBI - LMAO. we will get paid enough to pay bills and fry our brains using LLMs. Now thats utopia.
physicsguy•1h ago
cryptoSympozium•1h ago