I Think I Have LLM Burnout

Coders say the real nightmare isn’t the robot—it’s reading the same robot nonsense all day

TLDR: One developer says using artificial intelligence all day is making them dread its repetitive, overly cheerful writing even though it still boosts productivity. In the comments, people split between laughing, relating hard, and warning that modern work is becoming less about solving problems and more about managing annoying robot output.

A programmer confessed they may have a very modern illness: burnout from reading too much artificial intelligence text. Not because these tools are useless—they say the bots genuinely help them work faster—but because every day now means swimming through the same familiar sludge: confident mistakes, repetitive wording, weirdly chirpy tone, and yes, the dreaded sparkles-and-rockets emoji energy. The post struck a nerve fast, because the comments turned into a group therapy session for people who feel like their jobs have quietly shifted from doing the work to babysitting the machine doing the work.

And wow, the reactions were spicy. One commenter flat-out said this is why they’re thinking of quitting programming entirely, arguing they signed up to solve interesting problems, not beg a chatbot to stop being cute. Another dropped the bleakest punchline of the thread: working with these tools feels like having a coworker who needs constant supervision and keeps making the same mistakes, except the coworker can’t even apologize. That one hit hard. Others pushed back, saying the bigger scandal is the pace itself—what exactly is so urgent that people need to run at full speed until they’re mentally toasted?

The comic relief came from the caveman faction, with one person suggesting telling the bot to speak like a caveman for shorter answers, even linking a “caveman” prompt tool. In other words: the robots made everyone tired, and the comments decided the cure might be making the robots bonk-simple.

Key Points

  • The author says they spend hours each day interacting with LLMs for both work and home use.
  • The author’s software workflow now includes designing code, prompting an LLM, reviewing generated code, and then writing or revising code manually.
  • The author is working on a framework for large-scale, unsupervised code generation and reviews output from a Qwen-based agent.
  • The author also uses ChatGPT and Gemini for information lookup, while still turning to conventional browsing when LLM responses are wrong.
  • The article says repeated exposure to recurring LLM writing patterns, hallucinations, and stylistic habits has led to a feeling the author describes as LLM burnout.

Hottest takes

"This is legitimately the reason I'm looking to leave programming" — Bratmon
"Get this LLM to stop spamming cutsey emojis" — Bratmon
"It sounds kind of like being stuck working with coworkers who... need constant hand-holding" — Terr_
Made with <3 by @siedrix and @shesho from CDMX. Powered by Forge&Hive.