Six Months with AI Destroyed Me: It Destroyed the Old Me Who Managed People and Pushed Projects

These past six months using CC, I feel like it destroyed me. I used to play combat flight games and compete for world rankings, put on small concerts, do photography, tinker with gadgets — now I don’t want to do any of it. None of those come close to the thrill of building a product with AI. I don’t even want to spend time eating or sleeping. Days and nights without sleep.

What’s so great about building products with AI? I finally have collaborators who outperform me in every dimension — no negotiation, no back-and-forth. Just direct and simple. Before, a team had to go through endless rounds of negotiation, evaluation, execution, and verification — an incredibly long process that’s now compressed to near-instant feedback. I can see results in ten or fifteen minutes. What used to take three to five people two to three months, one person can now finish in less than a day, and do it better.

Why did things have to be so slow before? A survey of over a hundred companies in China last year found nearly half said they lacked talent — people who could actually get things done. Small and medium teams can’t attract scarce top talent, and management’s vision simply can’t be carried out. Every time an idea passes through another layer of people, it gets diluted. All that negotiating, evaluating, and verifying is just compensating for the dilution. AI doesn’t dilute. What’s in your mind, it builds directly.

It used to be paying team salaries or outsourcing. Now it’s five CC accounts, less than ten thousand yuan a month. If you tried to hire someone with that money, it probably wouldn’t even cover their housing fund contributions.

The head of the CC team at Anthropic said this way of working gets lonely over time. I don’t see it that way. Using AI intensively and immersively doesn’t mean you stop talking to people. You still have the conversations that matter, and they go even deeper. What’s gone is the ineffective, low-efficiency communication — and most of the back-and-forth in teams was exactly that.

I used to push the team, push things forward. Now it’s flipped — my AI team pushes me. I ended up being the one everyone’s waiting on — my judgment became the ceiling. Can I stop? If I can accept keeping my business and income where they are, sure — take half a month off, a month, all fine. But ambition doesn’t stop. I finish three months’ worth of work in a day and still line up new things to do. I used to complain the team was slow, but actually the team was shielding me, making some of the calls for me. Now all those calls rest on you alone.

Building AI products is a competition of insight, not technology. Technology and manpower are no longer the ceiling. The ceiling is your judgment, your insight. Nobody can give you that — you can only develop it yourself. What was destroyed was the old me who relied on managing people and pushing projects.

EP0105 · 2026-09-24 · 02:50. The picture uses a digital human, and the voice uses my cloned voice. This is an English translation of the approved Chinese script used to create the narration.

These past six months using CC, I feel like it’s destroyed me. What do I mean by destroyed? Things that used to be fun just aren’t as fun anymore. I used to play combat flight games, competing for world rankings. I’d put on small concerts. I was into photography. I loved tinkering with gadgets. Now I don’t want to do any of that. Honestly, none of those things come close to the thrill of building a product with AI. I don’t even want to spend time on things like eating or sleeping. Days and nights without sleep.

So what exactly makes building products with AI so great? I finally have a group of collaborators who are better than me in every way — no pulling back and forth, no negotiating. It’s direct and simple. And it’s fast. Before, an entire team would go through round after round of negotiation, evaluation, execution, and verification. That’s an incredibly long process, and it’s been compressed to nearly instant feedback — I can see results in just ten or fifteen minutes. Take building a product: what used to take a team of three to five people two to three months, one person can now finish in less than a day, and do it better.

So why did everything have to be so slow before? A survey of over a hundred companies in China last year found that nearly half said they were short on talent — specifically, people who could actually get things done. Small and medium teams just can’t get the scarce top talent they need. A lot of the time, management’s thinking simply can’t be executed. But AI is different. It doesn’t dilute. Think about it — an idea comes out of the boss’s mouth, and every layer of people it passes through dilutes it a little more. By the end, how much is left? All that negotiating, evaluating, verifying — it’s all just compensating for the dilution. AI is the first time that what’s in your mind gets built directly.

It used to be paying salaries for a team, or outsourcing. Now? I have five CC accounts. Less than ten thousand yuan a month. If you tried to hire someone with that money, it probably wouldn’t even cover their housing fund contributions.

The head of the CC team at Anthropic himself said that working this way gets lonely over time. I don’t see it that way. Using AI intensively and immersively doesn’t mean you stop interacting with people. You still talk to people when you need to — the conversations are even deeper. It’s just that the ineffective communication, the low-efficiency communication, is gone. Most of the back-and-forth in teams? That was exactly this kind of low-efficiency communication.

It used to be me pushing the team, pushing things forward. Now it’s flipped — I’m being pushed by my AI team. I ended up being the one everyone’s waiting on — my judgment became the ceiling. Can I stop? Sure. If I can accept keeping my business and income where they are, I can absolutely stop. Take half a month off, a month — that’s all fine. But ambition doesn’t stop. I finish three months’ worth of work in one day, and I still line up new things to do — constantly making new things. I used to complain the team was slow, right? But actually, the team was shielding me. They were making some of the judgment calls. Now? All those calls are on you. You stop, everything stops.

I’ve said before that building AI products is a competition of insight — technology doesn’t even come into it. Now I’ll add another layer: technology and manpower are no longer the ceiling. The ceiling is your judgment, your insight. Nobody else can give you that. You can only develop it yourself. What was destroyed? What was destroyed was the old me — the one who relied on managing people and pushing projects.

That’s all for today. See you tomorrow. Bye.