AI made work faster, not lighter
'AI promised less work. I've never worked more' pulled comments saying the whole machine speeds up while the human stays the same. Upstream inputs get faster too, so more arrives at your desk. One commenter said AI hands employers leverage, because they can threaten AI layoffs in a weak job market. 'The Mythical Man-Month in the Age of AI' makes the same point from the engineering side. Brooks still holds: the cost sits in coordination and understanding, not typing. One quote: adding agents to unclear requirements 'gets you the wrong answer faster'. A reply says that speed is now the best way to find the right answer.
The pattern: output per person is up, but review, design, and decision-making didn't get cheaper. Those are the parts that scale worst. The older Ask HN thread 'Tell HN: I'm 60 years old. Claude Code has re-ignited a passion' shows the other side. For people who like building, Claude Code means a backlog of ideas gets cleared between meetings.
One commenter in that thread said using Claude all day was unfulfilling, like getting an A on a test you didn't take. Enjoyment is split. Throughput is not.
So what?
Don't plan headcount or roadmaps on 'AI makes everyone 10x'. The bottleneck moved to reviewing and deciding, so invest in specs, tests, and review tooling. Watch your team for burnout, because faster output tends to raise the workload instead of lowering it.