End of the day. Tired. Really tired. And I looked at what I'd actually made and thought — what did I even do today?
Not nothing. But not much. Definitely not worth how I felt.
So I went looking. And apparently there's a name for it now. Researchers at BCG studied nearly 1,500 workers and found that 14% of people using AI at work are experiencing what they're calling "brain fry" — mental exhaustion from constantly monitoring, correcting, and managing AI output. In creative fields it hits one in four. The most draining part isn't using AI. It's babysitting it.
I felt personally called out.
Because here is what actually happens when I sit down to work with Claude. I have an idea — rough, alive, mine. I describe it. Three options come back in three seconds. Now I have to read all three. Evaluate. Pick a direction. Explain why. Read the next round. Redirect. Read again. And somewhere in that loop, the idea that was alive when I started has been processed into something technically correct and completely flat. And I'm exhausted. And it's 4pm.
The research explains why. The cognitive work doesn't disappear — it shifts. You stop generating and start evaluating. Constantly. Every single output is a micro-decision: keep, reject, revise. That is a different kind of work than making something. It's the kind that quietly empties you out.
There's also something no productivity article will tell you: when you work alone, the decision loop is internal. Fast, invisible, yours. When you work with AI, you have to externalize everything. Put the thought into words. Send it. Wait. Read. React. Your own thinking becomes a conversation you didn't ask to have. That overhead adds up. By the end of the day it feels like you've been in back-to-back meetings — except the meetings were with yourself.
One study coined the term "workload creep." The time AI saves gets immediately filled with more work. You're faster, technically. You're not less tired.
And then there are the people online telling you they finished everything in two seconds and now they have the whole day free.
I want to be kind here. But also honest. A study tracking experienced developers using AI found that they actually took longer to complete tasks with AI than without — and even after experiencing the slowdown firsthand, they still believed AI had made them faster. The gap between what people feel is happening and what is actually happening is real, and it is wide.
So either those people have found something genuinely exceptional, or they're measuring the wrong things, or — and I say this without judgment because I've done it too — they're confusing feeling productive with being productive. Those are not the same.
If this sounds familiar, here's what I'd actually suggest.
The Rules.
One option. Not three. This is related to text heavy options not design options. If you wanted to decide between three things you didn't need AI, you needed a menu. Tell it: one answer, short. Every time.
Time it. Twenty minutes maximum for a working session with AI. Set the timer before you open it. When it goes off, you're done. The session will never end on its own — that's not how it works.
80% is enough. Choose it and move. You are a perfectionist and this tool was accidentally designed to destroy perfectionists — infinite options, infinite refinement, infinite reasons not to decide. The last 20% will cost you more than it's worth.
Know the mode before you open it. Generate or refine. Brainstorm or finish. These are not the same session. Walk in knowing which one you're in.
The tool isn't broken. The structure around it is. Fix the structure.
See you next time,
p.s. Stop Treating AI Like an Oracle. Treat it Like a Bad Junior Designer.
Not nothing. But not much. Definitely not worth how I felt.
So I went looking. And apparently there's a name for it now. Researchers at BCG studied nearly 1,500 workers and found that 14% of people using AI at work are experiencing what they're calling "brain fry" — mental exhaustion from constantly monitoring, correcting, and managing AI output. In creative fields it hits one in four. The most draining part isn't using AI. It's babysitting it.
I felt personally called out.
Because here is what actually happens when I sit down to work with Claude. I have an idea — rough, alive, mine. I describe it. Three options come back in three seconds. Now I have to read all three. Evaluate. Pick a direction. Explain why. Read the next round. Redirect. Read again. And somewhere in that loop, the idea that was alive when I started has been processed into something technically correct and completely flat. And I'm exhausted. And it's 4pm.
The research explains why. The cognitive work doesn't disappear — it shifts. You stop generating and start evaluating. Constantly. Every single output is a micro-decision: keep, reject, revise. That is a different kind of work than making something. It's the kind that quietly empties you out.
There's also something no productivity article will tell you: when you work alone, the decision loop is internal. Fast, invisible, yours. When you work with AI, you have to externalize everything. Put the thought into words. Send it. Wait. Read. React. Your own thinking becomes a conversation you didn't ask to have. That overhead adds up. By the end of the day it feels like you've been in back-to-back meetings — except the meetings were with yourself.
One study coined the term "workload creep." The time AI saves gets immediately filled with more work. You're faster, technically. You're not less tired.
And then there are the people online telling you they finished everything in two seconds and now they have the whole day free.
I want to be kind here. But also honest. A study tracking experienced developers using AI found that they actually took longer to complete tasks with AI than without — and even after experiencing the slowdown firsthand, they still believed AI had made them faster. The gap between what people feel is happening and what is actually happening is real, and it is wide.
So either those people have found something genuinely exceptional, or they're measuring the wrong things, or — and I say this without judgment because I've done it too — they're confusing feeling productive with being productive. Those are not the same.
If this sounds familiar, here's what I'd actually suggest.
The Rules.
One option. Not three. This is related to text heavy options not design options. If you wanted to decide between three things you didn't need AI, you needed a menu. Tell it: one answer, short. Every time.
Time it. Twenty minutes maximum for a working session with AI. Set the timer before you open it. When it goes off, you're done. The session will never end on its own — that's not how it works.
80% is enough. Choose it and move. You are a perfectionist and this tool was accidentally designed to destroy perfectionists — infinite options, infinite refinement, infinite reasons not to decide. The last 20% will cost you more than it's worth.
Know the mode before you open it. Generate or refine. Brainstorm or finish. These are not the same session. Walk in knowing which one you're in.
The tool isn't broken. The structure around it is. Fix the structure.
See you next time,
p.s. Stop Treating AI Like an Oracle. Treat it Like a Bad Junior Designer.