When to AI
We don’t use AI tools all the time for everything. Whether we turn to them is a subliminal internal negotiational we make like with any machine.
Sometimes we take the stairs instead of an escalator or walk to our destination instead of drive. Often we pick something up without rolling out the vacuum.
Tools are always objects of rationalized behavior whether it be Claude Code or an umbrella. The relationship hygeine and fit is always the first class citizen.
Ideally, whenever we turn to a machine, AI or otherwise, it’s actually a realtime dynamic decision based qualitatively and personally on a large number of factors including our ability to do the task without the machine and our ability to orchestrate the machine (in AI world, get the coding agent to do what we intend).
Using the tool to do the task is also a technical ask.
The reason the technicals of a tool wins over the technicals of a task is due to the individual perception of the constellation of angles more approximates a Goldilock zone.
In the 2000s and 2010s, this was the core conflict of frameworks. Does the framework have enough alignment with the task that it would cumulatively simplify things.
However, this is not how we behave. Instead habituation promotes einstellung where we end up relying on the tool of the AI to do the trivial. This is closely related to Automation bias and OOTL.
As a result, we once again don’t behave as homo-economicus utility maximizers but instead as habitual agents based on beliefs.
Vibe Drift
As the points on our multi-dimensional lines change, it leads to the cumulative angles moving to places that we wouldn’t have used the tools if not for the escalation of commitment which probably best understood in the exercise of the dollar auction
As a result our tasks lose stability and we end up in a place of vibe drift
Everything we know about automation and control systems predict exactly what we experience when engaging long term with AI coding tools.
This means that the solutions this time might also be of the same type.