4 ms·

> I don't think I have a "burnout", but LLMs are really exhausting due to amount of pressure they generate. No one is really pushing me to increase my workload,

> I don't think I have a "burnout", but LLMs are really exhausting due to amount of pressure they generate. No one is really pushing me to increase my workload, but at every moment there is always something ready, done by my clankers or clankers of other people that I could be unblocking. I see a different type of pressure: I'm at a company that still is requiring everyone use LLMs with token leaderboards, time-spent measurements, and impacts to performance reviews, and all that. So I find myself having to carve out some percent of my time to stop doing productive work, and "go do AI to show token use." So my workload hasn't changed (or it's gone up), but I have N% less time to work on it because I have to spend time appeasing the AI gods...

efnx 4mo ago
Just have an agent chug on a side-project for you, or set up a CI script to review every pull request or some similarly “helpful” task. That should eat a lot of tokens!
- vkou 4mo ago
  Ideally, you should ask the LLM to write that CI script.
- eloisius 4mo ago
  Man. If I had this kind of mandate I could really burn some tokens. Review each new PR and extract 100 topics to debate related to it. Spin up 1000 sub agents, each with a different personality profile system prompt, to debate each point until consensus has been reached. Synthesize the learnings into a limerick. Build a Spotify playlist that pairs with the tone of the debates. Post the limerick and link to playlist on the PR and tag me to notify me that I have a PR to review.
  - marking-time 4mo ago
    Also, post the limerick to HN.
  - jaggederest 4mo ago
    Oh man, when MCP was still new and shiny I made an MCP that let the AI choose appropriate theme music for what it was doing and it was an absolute blast, I need to make a more modern one. Peer Gynt Suite's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" made a prominent appearance, but so did Aqua's "Barbie Girl"
  - fhd2 4mo ago
    Depends on how much you're asked to burn I guess. Until one point, it's actually helpful. Then there's a point where you can do stuff that's semi helpful but doesn't get in the way. But then I would imagine you reach a point where you have to come up with a token burn strategy and some kind of narrative for your manager that's in line with it. I bet at that last point, it gets taxing. Probably like eating. Having to eat less to loose weight isn't great. Eating anything you want without worries is great. Having to eat more than you want to gain weight, not great.
- chrisandchris 4mo ago
  > side-projects Just be careful about any legal implication of doing side-projects during work with work-resources.
bdlowery 4mo ago
What work are you doing where an LLM can’t meaningfully contribute to your everyday work
- deleted 4mo ago
  [deleted]
jorisw 4mo ago
Probably easy for an outsider to say but companies tracking their workers quantatively like this would have me looking for another job
derdi 4mo ago
I wonder how long this will still be a thing. More and more companies seem to come to the conclusion that tokenmaxxing is just too expensive for the value it delivers. Will there be others that continue doing it? Will there be companies that advertise "unlimited tokens" as part of job listings? How will they react when employees test the limits of "unlimited" (whether by accident or not)?
deleted 4mo ago
[deleted]

efnx 4mo ago

Just have an agent chug on a side-project for you, or set up a CI script to review every pull request or some similarly “helpful” task. That should eat a lot of tokens!

vkou 4mo ago
Ideally, you should ask the LLM to write that CI script.
eloisius 4mo ago
Man. If I had this kind of mandate I could really burn some tokens. Review each new PR and extract 100 topics to debate related to it. Spin up 1000 sub agents, each with a different personality profile system prompt, to debate each point until consensus has been reached. Synthesize the learnings into a limerick. Build a Spotify playlist that pairs with the tone of the debates. Post the limerick and link to playlist on the PR and tag me to notify me that I have a PR to review.
- marking-time 4mo ago
  Also, post the limerick to HN.
- jaggederest 4mo ago
  Oh man, when MCP was still new and shiny I made an MCP that let the AI choose appropriate theme music for what it was doing and it was an absolute blast, I need to make a more modern one. Peer Gynt Suite's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" made a prominent appearance, but so did Aqua's "Barbie Girl"
- fhd2 4mo ago
  Depends on how much you're asked to burn I guess. Until one point, it's actually helpful. Then there's a point where you can do stuff that's semi helpful but doesn't get in the way. But then I would imagine you reach a point where you have to come up with a token burn strategy and some kind of narrative for your manager that's in line with it. I bet at that last point, it gets taxing. Probably like eating. Having to eat less to loose weight isn't great. Eating anything you want without worries is great. Having to eat more than you want to gain weight, not great.
chrisandchris 4mo ago
> side-projects Just be careful about any legal implication of doing side-projects during work with work-resources.

bdlowery 4mo ago

What work are you doing where an LLM can’t meaningfully contribute to your everyday work

deleted 4mo ago
[deleted]

jorisw 4mo ago

Probably easy for an outsider to say but companies tracking their workers quantatively like this would have me looking for another job

derdi 4mo ago

I wonder how long this will still be a thing. More and more companies seem to come to the conclusion that tokenmaxxing is just too expensive for the value it delivers. Will there be others that continue doing it? Will there be companies that advertise "unlimited tokens" as part of job listings? How will they react when employees test the limits of "unlimited" (whether by accident or not)?

deleted 4mo ago

[deleted]