The Productivity Myth (ft. Vibe Coding)

Lately, I've been building small apps using Cursor. It's been oddly satisfying. I guess the kids call it 'vibe coding,' when you speak to the app (using wispr) and describe (to it) what you want and watch (it) spin your thought into existence. It's really fun. However, something strange started happening to me recently that I couldn't ignore.

The moment I hit enter and Cursor starts generating, my hand automatically reaches for my phone. Or I open X. Within seconds, I'm scrolling through tweets about things that have nothing to do with what I'm building. It's kind of a reflex.

My definition of productivity has always been about maximizing output. Something like, more output per unit of time. But this workflow, where AI writes as I wait (actually doomscroll), while technically makes me more productive, makes me feel somewhat uneasy.

It's weird, even when I'm doing more work, it's not necessarily more focused work.

There's something unsettling about those 30 seconds between instruction and output. The void feels expensive. So I fill it, with distraction. The irony is that the more powerful these tools become, I feel weaker, not stronger, in my capacity to be with and think for myself. I feel like I am no longer optimizing for results, instead just to get the task done. This reminds me of how TikTok makes me feel (I do not use it btw). But I see how it has trained all my friends' brains for micro-dopamine. I think Cursor may be training me (us?) for micro-dopamine at work. Actually, when you think about it, this might be the next stage of the same attention economy that sucked the soul out of 'leisure time,' now creeping into our knowledge work and creative process.

In the past, waiting was part of the craft. A render took time. A compile took time. Thinking took time. Now, waiting feels like failure.