February 11, 2026
Who invited Dracula to standup?
The AI Vampire
Is AI draining our jobs and sanity? Panic, punchlines, and a call to ban it
TLDR: Steve Yegge says AI acts like an energy vampire—huge productivity, but burnout and messy value capture. The comments are split: mocking Microsoft’s Claude obsession, calling $4.4k tool bills insane, and demanding bans as junior roles vanish and older workers fear layoffs.
Tech veteran Steve Yegge just dropped a spooky take: AI is an energy vampire that boosts output but drains humans. He claims tools like Claude Code give a 10x boost, and even hints Microsoft engineers prefer it over Copilot (The Verge vibes). The real horror? Who gets the value: the worker or the boss? Yegge paints two extremes—burnout hero vs one-hour slacker—and neither ends well.
Cue the comment section lighting up like a haunted house. One commenter couldn’t resist the blue-orange visuals, calling them pure Battlefield 3 box art nostalgia, and yes, people are now memeing AI as “Colin Robinson” from What We Do in the Shadows. Another roasted Microsoft: “Well, that explains the sloppy results,” blaming the Claude craze for recent hiccups. Then came the money shock—someone paying $4.4k a month for 22 AI accounts. Commenters called it madness, addiction, and “coding roulette.”
The split is vicious: ban AI now vs learn it or get left behind. One user says Yegge has lost it, while another warns AI is killing junior jobs and pushing older workers out. The vibe? A cocktail of burnout fear, job apocalypse, and gaming memes—served with a side of corporate shade. Pass the garlic.
Key Points
- •The author describes an “AI vampire” effect where AI-driven work leads to overwork and burnout.
- •He asserts that AI coding now delivers major productivity gains, citing use of Opus 4.5/4.6 with Claude Code.
- •Citing The Verge, he claims Microsoft encourages multiple AI tools and that Claude Code is widely adopted among its engineers.
- •A hypothetical 10x productivity example is used to analyze who captures the value (employer vs. employee).
- •Two scenarios are outlined: full-time at 10x (employer captures value; worker burnout) versus minimal hours to keep parity (worker captures value; company risk), suggesting a needed balance.