The Exhaustion of Talking to a Tool
3 hours ago
- #LLMs
- #Human-Computer Interaction
- #Social Energy
- LLMs feel exhausting because they demand social energy similar to human interaction but without the rewarding payoff.
- Unlike tools that become seamless extensions of the body (e.g., cars, keyboards), LLMs lack consistency and speed, making them feel like conversational partners.
- Interacting with LLMs incurs a 'social tax'—requiring conversation, negotiation, and persuasion—yet often yields repetitive outputs like more code or tests.
- Human interactions are more valuable as they involve teaching, challenging, inspiring, or honest feedback, making the social effort worthwhile.
- While LLMs enable solo tasks previously impossible, the social energy spent on them might be better directed toward real human collaborators for greater benefit.