Bloomberg ran a piece about Claude burnout. I'm noticing something adjacent. Not quite burnout. Compulsion?
One Hacker News user described it as "gambling, with inconsistent dopamine hits." That feels closer, a kind of not being able to stop.
My wife switched from ChatGPT to Claude desktop last week. Saturday night, on the couch, blue screen glare on her face, Cowork reports filing in, she looks up dazzled: "Claude is friggin' amazing!" Sunday she's slacking employees about the results. Monday she asks me for a deep dive on everything Claude can do and what model to use. Monday afternoon: "It kind of sucks when you grow reliance on it and then hit the limits."
Delight to frustration. In 72 hours. Tokens are a hell of a business model.
I don't have a single coaching client who isn't neck-deep in Claude right now. They're upgrading from free to Pro, from Pro to Max, from Max $100 to Max $200. They're a mixture of giddy and terrified that they're behind (even though I'm pretty sure they're ahead of the curve). One wrote me, "It's weird to have something so productive and so efficient also be addictive."
Another client (frmr Snap, Clubhouse) quit his CTO gig at an AI startup to start an AI build shop, and claims they can ship any PRD in a day. He's currently surfing in Nicaragua. Folly? I doubt it. Burnout? I mean, definitely not!
And me? Six terminal windows; Claude on a remote server; the desktop app in Cowork; remote control installed last week. Max plan for the past month. I don't feel burnt out exactly, but I also don't feel like I have enough hours in the day to play.
This isn't burnout. It's something else. The strange fatigue of having more capability than time. The exhaustion I'm feeling isn't from the work, it's from the gap between what's suddenly possible and the hours I don't have to explore it.
What's your experience been? I'm genuinely curious whether I'm deep in some early-adopter rabbit hole or just reporting back what everyone's feeling right now. LMK, inquiring minds want to know.