Feeling: Mania

a state of abnormally elevated arousal, affect, and energy level.

I asked our DevOps lead to set up an environment with one of our AI tools running in a loop, responding to events happening in systems outside, and the ability to suggest code changes of its own in response.

This is not new - I’d been inspired by stories of openclaw, and optio, and I had a fairly clear idea of the specific capabilities I wanted to enable. But after a few hours playing with the concept he realised he couldn’t stop with what I’d talked about.

After the weekend, he gatecrashed a meeting he doesn’t normally come to, with a crazed look in his eyes. He hadn’t been able to sleep. He’d created his own framework, with the agent initially following instruction, but then iterating and choosing its own goals. He imagines a world where we don’t give it any instruction, we let it make the product decisions as well as architecture decisions as well as implementation decisions. I ask him how we will guide its output in such a world, and he says in a hushed tone “I don’t even know if we will be able to”. More than anything else, he wants assurance that he isn’t the only who sees this future, that he’s not going crazy.

AI mania has become a common ailment among those working in software.

I think most good technologists have experienced the tense excitement that comes from seeing the possibilities of a technology or a program for the first time. The manic energy that can’t be easily dissipated by anything except building until you hear the birds welcome the new morning.

AI seems to be a more reliable trigger for this feeling than anything else so far.

I used to go to bed before 10pm before vibe coding

now I can’t stop

— cemre