I've heard several people complain about AI (LLMs) and say it's killed the joy of programming, and that they are just delegating tasks and reviewing changes. I get it; at some point, I did enjoy what LLMs have taken away, and sometimes I miss it too.

I felt more productive once I got the idea of how to use some of these things and could focus on different, more design or high-level problems (doesn't mean I like the tools, but I liked the results). I started to get dopamine rushes from being able to deliver faster, but that just lasted for a few months.

What I absolutely HATE is how these things have increased expectations. My boss is like, "Oh well, you've solved this in half of the time, here's 10X more work". This has resulted in more project assignments, more meetings to discuss requirements, and more f**king context switching. I talked with my doctor, and we decided to increase the methylphenidate dose to allow me to deal with this context switching.

Using some of these things allowed me to get a promotion (money is good, I guess), but I'm tired and burning out.

I'm planning to build a device similar to brick which lets you freeze your phone & boost your productivity. What are the chances it'll be successful? Any advices on how I can make it better.

The hardest part of my morning was never waking up. It's the first move. I can snooze any alarm in my sleep and then lie there for an hour.

So I built one with no off button. You record a real sound you can only make by getting up (I use my pill bottle; a toothbrush or coffee grinder work too), and it won't stop until the phone hears you make that exact sound. Shutting it up means you already did the first thing.

The part that was fun to build: it matches the character of your specific sound, not a melody or a word you could fake from bed. When you enroll, it runs your sound through YAMNet on-device, then trains a tiny logistic classifier right there on the phone from your sound versus the alarm's own sound, with a voice veto so talking or the TV can't fool it. Nothing leaves the device. No account, no network.

One alarm is free, more are a one-time unlock, and there is no subscription and no ads.

Full writeup of how and why I built it: https://savecharlie.github.io/rattle/story.html It's in closed testing if you want to run it in the mornings: https://groups.google.com/g/jolt-testers