no agents after 8pm

19 Aug 2026 personal, work, agents, workflow

lately i’ve been busy with work. being in the sweaty, humid summer often leaves little reason to leave the comforting AC for the humid outdoors. naturally, this meant i was spending more and more time with the agents.

i know i’m not the first to write this (or the 2nd, or the 1000th, for that matter), but work has changed, and our responses to it have changed as well. when i’m focused (which for me usually means in the mornings), i can work in much more harmony with the agents. i can take the time to review the work from the Night Shift, read it thoughtfully, be critical, and notice nuances that require attention. i can do all of those things when i have enough fuel in the tank.

these are usually the times when i feel i work best, in a kind of synergy: my strengths can cover for some of the weaknesses of modern AI tools, like their lack of creativity, limited scientific / clinical soundness checks, and lapses in logical rigor. these are the times when i feel like i can steer the ship well and produce high-quality work.¹

later in the day, which for me usually means the late afternoon, is when i’ve recently felt a difference. i think that’s when lapses in judgment happen more often? it makes me think back to long shifts in the hospital, times when important decisions probably shouldn’t be made.²

i think i’ve felt it myself: overlooking important design decisions more often, delegating tasks that i would have taken on myself (because i prefer my own judgment on them), and so on.

there is another aspect as well. i feel like the ‘dopamine rush’ i get from interacting with these systems is exhilarating. in the mornings, i am much better at avoiding ping-ponging, expressing myself, and directing the work towards long-term goals, the kind of stuff that can make the agents run for hours and achieve something i can properly review. this ping-pong makes relaxing towards sleep much harder.

i don’t usually end up writing this type of ‘work experience’ short here, but it has literally kept me up at night, so here goes.

this isn’t a ‘go touch grass’ post. i don’t think that’s the point. touching grass is obvious and important (more than ever, etc.). it’s about the slippage of boundaries that is so much easier to slide into now, and about working smart and making things we are proud of. something like that, at least.

so: no agents after 8pm.

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