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> The human is left doing whatever the machine can't, often a narrower slice of the original role I haven't seen anyone talk about AI and its impact on flow ye

> The human is left doing whatever the machine can't, often a narrower slice of the original role I haven't seen anyone talk about AI and its impact on flow yet. It's pretty easy for me to achieve a flow state while coding without AI, but with AI, I'm not so sure. I spend my time managing multiple Claude instances as they work on different tasks, and there's no time to go really deep into anything. Flow was such a productivity boost for me. Even though Claude definitely helps me finish tasks quicker, I've started wondering how much quicker it actually is, vs getting into flow.

tartoran 6mo ago
I’ve seen people share the same experience here on HN. Im also in the same boat while I find LLMs uncomfortably useful but quite tiring to work with. To maintain flow I spend more time on crafting a complete and clear promot, akin to programming in natural language and avoid the back and forth when possible.
supermdguy 6mo ago
I’ve tried having one “big” task that I’m focusing on with active back and forth while letting other Claude instances handle easier back-burner type tasks that it can effectively one-shot. But I’ve noticed that often turns into me spending more time/focus than I’d want on tasks that aren’t actually that impactful. I still think I get more done than I would otherwise, but I still haven’t found the best management strategy.
auggierose 6mo ago
Some people think that flow is a negative. You do what you feel like doing, not what you should be doing.
roxolotl 6mo ago
This is a piece I liked a lot about how to make coding agents better for flow state: https://haskellforall.com/2026/02/beyond-agentic-coding https://haskellforall.com/2026/02/beyond-agentic-coding
- toomuchtodo 6mo ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46930565 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46930565 - February 2026 (90 comments)
ssss11 6mo ago
Sounds like you’ve become a manager.
- guiambros 6mo ago
  Very soon all software engineers will be managers. And no, not sarcasm.
david_allison 6mo ago
IMO: That's just due to the speed of responses. Hardware will continue to improve, and eventually you'll have the choice of reaching a flow state with 2026 models, or using frontier models at our current level of performance.
- iugtmkbdfil834 6mo ago
  In a sense, that is almost exactly the vision of the future shown in accellerando. User can and does send tons of specialized agents into the world. I am still not certain if I buy the premise of the article, but then my company is too cheap to let me play with Claude.
whateveracct 6mo ago
MBAs don't want to rely on people's flow. Let alone their skills. The fungible cog is their ideal.
QuercusMax 6mo ago
I feel like you can get into a different sort of flow - a low-key flow where you're managing a bunch of different streams as interrupts come in. Different kind of focus, much more big-picture, kinda like playing an RTS.
aarjaneiro 6mo ago
At this point if I see "Made with {whatever_service_you_outsourced_thinking_to}" on a PR description and you didn't even feel like putting the effort to remove it, I'm going in with the assumption that you didn't bother to do or check a lot of things.
shostack 6mo ago
I get into the same flow state as any fast paced strategy game like StarCraft.

tartoran 6mo ago

I’ve seen people share the same experience here on HN. Im also in the same boat while I find LLMs uncomfortably useful but quite tiring to work with. To maintain flow I spend more time on crafting a complete and clear promot, akin to programming in natural language and avoid the back and forth when possible.

supermdguy 6mo ago

I’ve tried having one “big” task that I’m focusing on with active back and forth while letting other Claude instances handle easier back-burner type tasks that it can effectively one-shot. But I’ve noticed that often turns into me spending more time/focus than I’d want on tasks that aren’t actually that impactful. I still think I get more done than I would otherwise, but I still haven’t found the best management strategy.

auggierose 6mo ago

Some people think that flow is a negative. You do what you feel like doing, not what you should be doing.

roxolotl 6mo ago

This is a piece I liked a lot about how to make coding agents better for flow state: https://haskellforall.com/2026/02/beyond-agentic-coding https://haskellforall.com/2026/02/beyond-agentic-coding

toomuchtodo 6mo ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46930565 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46930565 - February 2026 (90 comments)

ssss11 6mo ago

Sounds like you’ve become a manager.

guiambros 6mo ago
Very soon all software engineers will be managers. And no, not sarcasm.

david_allison 6mo ago

IMO: That's just due to the speed of responses. Hardware will continue to improve, and eventually you'll have the choice of reaching a flow state with 2026 models, or using frontier models at our current level of performance.

iugtmkbdfil834 6mo ago
In a sense, that is almost exactly the vision of the future shown in accellerando. User can and does send tons of specialized agents into the world. I am still not certain if I buy the premise of the article, but then my company is too cheap to let me play with Claude.

whateveracct 6mo ago

MBAs don't want to rely on people's flow. Let alone their skills. The fungible cog is their ideal.

QuercusMax 6mo ago

I feel like you can get into a different sort of flow - a low-key flow where you're managing a bunch of different streams as interrupts come in. Different kind of focus, much more big-picture, kinda like playing an RTS.

aarjaneiro 6mo ago

At this point if I see "Made with {whatever_service_you_outsourced_thinking_to}" on a PR description and you didn't even feel like putting the effort to remove it, I'm going in with the assumption that you didn't bother to do or check a lot of things.

shostack 6mo ago

I get into the same flow state as any fast paced strategy game like StarCraft.