Task Paralysis and AI

任务瘫痪与人工智能

About Task Paralysis

关于任务瘫痪

Straight away: I am not diagnosed yet. So I’m hesitant to say “I have ADHD”, because the truth is: I don’t know it. There are signs: My siblings have been diagnosed as kids, and I’m personally struggling with tasks that others deem to be “easy”. I have a tremendous need for novelty, and I can hardly picture myself doing the same job for the next 30 years. I’m not kidding: At the moment, I change roles every 2-3 years. This isn’t really sustainable. Due to circumstances out of my control, I wasn’t able to tackle that earlier. 首先声明：我目前还没有被确诊。所以我不敢轻易说“我有 ADHD（注意力缺陷多动障碍）”，因为事实是：我并不确定。但确实有一些迹象：我的兄弟姐妹在童年时期就被确诊了，而我个人在处理那些别人认为“简单”的任务时也感到非常吃力。我对新鲜感有着极大的需求，很难想象自己未来 30 年都在做同一份工作。我没开玩笑：目前，我每 2-3 年就会换一个岗位。这确实不太可持续。由于一些我无法控制的情况，我没能早点去处理这个问题。

Also, it doesn’t really help if you want to build a career: I can navigate myself around a lot of technical fields, but I have no special knowledge. Often, I struggle with the execution of a strategy that I successfully laid out. I will simply refuse to do the first step, because everything now feels overwhelming. So… there are signs. Yes. But that might be another article. I’m aware that there is something called Analysis Paralysis. But that’s different, at least for me and to my understanding. Let me put it this way: When Analysis Paralysis kicks in, my brain will run in circles. When Task Paralysis kicks in, my brain won’t run at all. That sucks. 此外，如果你想建立职业生涯，这种情况也毫无帮助：我可以在许多技术领域游刃有余，但却没有专精的知识。我经常在执行自己成功制定的策略时感到困难。我就是拒绝迈出第一步，因为一切看起来都让人不知所措。所以……迹象确实存在。是的。但这可能是另一篇文章的主题了。我知道有一种东西叫“分析瘫痪”（Analysis Paralysis）。但至少在我看来，这与我所经历的有所不同。换句话说：当“分析瘫痪”发作时，我的大脑会陷入死循环；而当“任务瘫痪”发作时，我的大脑则完全停止了运转。这太糟糕了。

About AI

关于人工智能

I won’t go as far and say that I HATE AI per se. I just shelled out almost 100 € in tokens (Max-plan for Claude) to code a game. And an iOS App. Because I need the latter and want the former. But I see all the negative effects that come with AI: People are loosing their jobs, sometimes loosing themselves. Art gets stolen, and suddenly, piracy isn’t piracy any longer once large companies are doing the deed. That feels unfair, to say the least, and strange at best. (I 👴 grew up in the 2000s, so I have some knowledge about piracy from back in the days, and how copyright holders went after people.) 我不会说我“憎恨”人工智能本身。我刚刚花了近 100 欧元的代币（Claude 的 Max 计划）来编写一个游戏和一个 iOS 应用程序。因为我需要后者，也想要前者。但我看到了人工智能带来的所有负面影响：人们正在失去工作，有时甚至迷失自我。艺术作品被窃取，一旦大公司开始这样做，盗版似乎就不再是盗版了。往轻了说这很不公平，往好了说这很诡异。（我 👴 是在 2000 年代长大的，所以我对当年的盗版行为以及版权持有者如何追究人们的责任有一些了解。）

I refrain to use AI for anything artistic since a couple of months. I either buy it, or try to do it myself “the old way”. I can fail, I can succeed - but I did it on my own. That’s important. The effect AI has on artists feels just too destructive. What is it good for? For me, personally? It helps me overcome my task paralysis. As mentioned earlier: I have a plan. A strategy. An idea. I just need someone (or something), who has fun in churning through the implementation. I have the ideas. But boy is coding exhausting. As I learned quite late in my life, it is indeed not normal to fight with your motivation to create code every time you tackle a new user story, but succeed once you started. 几个月来，我拒绝在任何艺术创作中使用人工智能。我要么购买作品，要么尝试用“老办法”自己动手。我可能会失败，也可能会成功——但我确实是靠自己完成的。这一点很重要。人工智能对艺术家的影响实在太具破坏性了。那么它有什么用呢？对我个人而言？它能帮我克服任务瘫痪。如前所述：我有计划、有策略、有想法。我只需要某个人（或某种东西）来享受执行的过程。我有想法，但天哪，写代码真是太累人了。我直到人生较晚的阶段才意识到，每当处理一个新的用户故事时，都要与自己的创作动力作斗争，直到开始后才能成功，这确实是不正常的。

The Catch

陷阱

Claude Code in this case is the something that just helps me getting started. And, lo’ and behold, I see myself struggling to not get addicted to that. What do I mean by that? While overcoming the task paralysis on one hand, it quickly produces really good results. Last time I tried AI was in fall of 2025. It’s an understatement to say that a lot has changed. There are worlds between what is possible today and what was possible back then. That means that the dopamine really kicks fast, because the cycle between “I have an idea” and “This is the result!” is so tremendously short. 在这种情况下，Claude Code 就是那个能帮我启动的东西。瞧，我发现自己正在努力不让自己对它产生依赖。我这是什么意思呢？一方面它克服了任务瘫痪，另一方面它能迅速产出非常好的结果。我上一次尝试 AI 是在 2025 年秋天。说“变化很大”都太保守了。今天能做到的事情与当时相比简直是天壤之别。这意味着多巴胺分泌得非常快，因为从“我有一个想法”到“这就是结果！”之间的周期变得极其短暂。

But Claude has token limits. You can only spend a limited amount of tokens per 5 hours or 7 days. But you can buy additional API tokens. And now you set yourself in a position where you throw endless money at your source of dopamine, like a junkie running to their dealer, begging for the next shot. Or a poor player waiting for the golden ticket. And, to be brutally honest: I know because I fell for it. After getting the Pro-plan, I added another 20 € for API credits. After that, I realized I should go for Max for this month, and also leverage some tricks like /modus opusplan to reduce the amount of tokens that are used. But the dopamine feels so freaking good. 但 Claude 有代币限制。每 5 小时或 7 天内你只能消耗有限的代币。但你可以购买额外的 API 代币。现在你把自己置于一种境地：不断地向你的多巴胺来源砸钱，就像一个瘾君子跑向毒贩，乞求下一剂药；或者像一个可怜的赌徒在等待那张金奖券。坦白说：我深有体会，因为我中招了。在购买了 Pro 计划后，我又额外充值了 20 欧元的 API 点数。之后，我意识到这个月我应该直接上 Max 计划，并利用一些技巧（比如 /modus opusplan）来减少代币消耗。但那种多巴胺带来的快感实在是太棒了。

Disclaimer: No AI was used to create this article. 免责声明：本文创作过程中未使用任何人工智能。