AI Burnout Is No Joke

When I started using Claude Code, I didn’t think it would push me that hard. In the beginning I was beaming with energy, excitement and wonder, watching it help me get things done faster and in ways I’d never imagined. Nine months in, I was totally burned. Mentally, emotionally, and physically. This is that story.

12 to 15 Hours a Day, Every Day

The project that did it was my automated trading system, plus the constant refinement and experimentation on my own AI harness (the rulebook and guardrails I built so the AI works to my standards, which went through three generations, SST1 to SST3, along the way).

Nine months into the build, I started to notice that in the prior 3 months alone, I had pulled more than 10 days where I was working 24 to 30 hours straight, with only short food breaks. And that was on top of the baseline. I was already pulling 12 to 15 hours a day, every day.

Then there were the days when shit breaks. Major regressions when I made changes to my harness, or when Anthropic releases a new model, which tends to break things for the first 1 to 2 weeks instead of progression. Those days don’t show up on any plan. They just eat whatever was left of you.

Eight Chats and No Stopping

At the peak I would be working with up to 8 orchestrator chats running simultaneously (an orchestrator chat is the main Claude Code session that manages one piece of work and fires off its own smaller jobs). I worked them in rotation, spending the in-between time reviewing each of their work before setting them off again to continue doing what AI does… work without stopping.

Here is what that actually looked like: 3 of the screens with a total of 5 of 6 Claude Code sessions open and work in progress. Sometimes it’s all 4 screens, each with a 2-split window of Claude Code.

And here’s the part that crept up on me. I was becoming a reflection of AI, working like a machine. There was no stopping either. Most nights I would wake up in the middle of the night to review code and implementations, trigger the next set of jobs, then go back to bed.

Two Max Accounts, Still Not Enough

At that time I had 2 subscriptions of Claude Max 20x, their biggest tier. 1 for business and 1 personal account (we’re not supposed to have more than 1 account as per their ToS, the terms of service), but there is no way I’d be able to afford their overage fees for personal projects lol.

I was easily burning through the weekly usage on each Max 20x account in 3 days on average, then having to try to stretch it an extra day with fewer chats open. That’s how relentless the pace was. The bottleneck was never me wanting a break. It was the meter running out.

Hermit Mode

By the 9th month, I was totally burned mentally, emotionally, and physically. I rarely left the house, a state I call “hermit mode”, and the sleeping pattern was well and truly broken.

I did lack exercise. I dropped my weekly climbing and stopped dancing, but I did try to run most days of the week. Eating was the one thing I kept right. I enjoy cooking, the meals I prepare are generally well balanced, and the time in the kitchen was good time away from the computer to allow my brain to rest.

(I have said this before in Entrepreneurship in a Nutshell: burnout is a real cost, not a badge. I knew the lesson. It got me anyway again.)

What Came Out of It

But at the end of it, I had a working trading system (which still needed some small tweaks and bug fixing for the next 3 months and onwards, as I continue to use it), and my own customised harness, SST3-AI-Harness. And I gained a significant amount of experience and knowledge in using AI, so I can build whatever imagination and ideas I have from here on, and do it single handedly without the need of a large team.

I have automated other smaller side projects along the way and use it to do research on any topics or just general brainstorming since the harness for SST3 generally works very well and the only limit is my imagination.

And Now?

The last 3 months have been back to the more chilled 10 to 12 hours a day, every day. Not so intense anymore, and I have started working on many more new ideas and projects.

The experience I gained in this one year alone, if counting a normal 8 hour day, is equivalent to 3 to 4 years of working life. Mad right? Lol.

I have recently seen a few posts about AI burnout. I have had this blog topic on my list for some months now, and eventually had the time to put my thoughts down. AI burnout is real and no joke :) It’s super intense! Have you also experienced this? I’d certainly like to know how it made you feel, and what your working day is like now compared to before.