Arvind

Over the last week or so, my AI usage has spiked significantly - maybe 6-8hrs/day - usually an "ongoing conversation" that starts around 5-6pm and ends around midnight or later, excluding the few hours during work, and it's been really interesting to observe how (a) addictive (b) anxiety-inducing and (c) therapeutic / creative this technology is. I've recently cancelled a bunch of other AI apps, and ~90% of my usage is now locked into @claudeai (research, visual charts, data analysis, agentic work), @OpenAI (codeX), @emergentlabs (apps, openclaw), @usecardboard (video editing). A few observations: > with AI, agency / optimism / excitement is what matters most; on days I am feeling low, I don't use it as much, but when I am excited about the 'what if' or have a problem I am excited to solve, my usage spikes. > relatedly, AI will benefit "problem solvers" way more; the rest will use it more as an information tool (therapy, information, support etc). As a consequence, entrepreneurs/solopreneurs will find AI way, way more useful. > As a ratio, >75% of my AI work is "new work" i.e. I am doing things I just wouldn't have done before. It's almost like I now have a new mega-skill, like I woke up knowing how to speak french or play a guitar, and now I just want to use it everywhere even though life was moving along fine even without it. > agent-anxiety is real; I remember a time before email or cell-phones, there was no anxiety to "check on things", but then being away from email for 2hrs felt like life was passing you by. With agents, the ROI is so high that if I don't have something running during dinner/lunch or a flight, I feel that time was wasted and I could do work that would've taken me 10hrs! This is very scary because soon we'll do work in hours that takes months. I wonder how it'll all play out. > I really want agents managing agents because I am becoming a bottleneck - e.g. agent needs inputs, approval to gdrive, and I come back 30mins later seeing it's stuck and that really frustrated me - so I am now often sitting "nursing" these agents to ensure roads are clean for them to drive on. > Finally, CLI is way, way more "flow state" inducing that chat; maybe it's because I grew up coding on CLI, but there is something about getting everything done on a black screen with no distraction and now the ability to talk to it without any alt-tab is just incredible. I wish I had used CLI on claude first, but I am using codex a lot more lately for code as I've gotten used to its quirks & personality! What a time to be alive! This tech really IS magic.