AI is making a lot of people anxious. But this perspective comes from a friend of mine N, who's been a tech person all his life. As a senior executive, a promoter of a tech company, he uses AI, finds it a really efficient tool, but over time, has figured that it also makes him anxious. It is so efficient it makes you feel a little inadequate.
Let's look at what N says.
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AI Is Making Me More Productive.
And It’s Also Making Me More Anxious.
AI has dramatically increased my productivity. Tasks that used to take hours now take minutes. Things that required a team sometimes just require a well-written prompt. I can ship faster. Think faster. Experiment faster.
But something else has changed. My mental baseline.
The Ceiling Has Moved
AI doesn’t just make you faster. It expands what feels possible.
Suddenly:
You can explore 5 ideas instead of 1.
You can run experiments in parallel.
You can build things you previously wouldn’t even attempt.
You can compress a 1–2 year roadmap into months.
The ceiling has moved up. But my brain hasn’t. Now there are more tracks running in my head at once.
More unfinished threads.
More “we should try this.”
More “we could also build that.”
I’m not just moving faster. I’m juggling more.
The Pressure of Optionality
Before AI, constraints made decisions easier. Time was limited. Engineering bandwidth was limited. Resources were limited.
Now the limitation isn’t capability. It’s discipline. When almost anything feels buildable, every decision carries weight.
If I don’t pursue an idea, am I missing something big?
If this takes only 20 minutes with AI, why haven’t I done it already?
The pressure isn’t external. It’s internal.
A Different Kind of Burnout
This doesn’t feel like traditional burnout. It’s not necessarily longer hours. It’s mental saturation.
Constant context switching
Endless experimentation
Continuous optimization
Never feeling “caught up”
The feedback loops are tighter now. Which means expectations rise faster. And the bar keeps moving daily. There’s this subtle anxiety that if you slow down, you’re falling behind.
Velocity Without Structure Feels Like Chaos
When everything accelerates:
Roadmaps shift weekly
Priorities evolve mid-cycle
Experiments overlap
Documentation lags
Without intentional structure, speed becomes noise. AI makes the musicians play faster. But it doesn’t automatically create harmony. And fast, uncoordinated motion is stressful.
The Psychological Shift
What AI changed most for me isn’t just output.
It changed how work feels.
There’s more possibility.
More FOMO.
More comparison.
More “should.”
The old constraint was capability. The new constraint is clarity.
What I’m Trying to Learn
A few things I’m realizing:
Just because I can run 10 tracks doesn’t mean I should.
Killing ideas quickly is a mental health skill.
Deep focus matters more when choice increase.
Not every feasible idea deserves energy.
AI multiplies productivity. But without boundaries, it also multiplies pressure.
The Real Challenge
The next challenge isn’t just learning to use AI.
It’s learning to process speeding up.
To increase output without increasing anxiety.
To experiment without fragmenting focus.
To move faster without burning out.
AI didn’t just change work. It changed the psychological environment of work.
And we’re still adapting.
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Very interesting isn't it.
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