Prompt Burnout

ELI5 — The Vibe Check

Prompt burnout is the mental fatigue from iterating on prompts all day. You've rewritten the same instructions 30 times. Your brain melts. The output still isn't quite right. Time to step away.

Real Talk

Prompt burnout is cognitive exhaustion from extended prompt iteration, typified by diminishing returns on changes, loss of objectivity about output quality, and decision fatigue. Mitigations: formal evals to replace subjective judgment, time-boxed iteration, and collaborative review with teammates who haven't been staring at the prompt.

When You'll Hear This

"I'm in prompt burnout — the outputs all sound the same to me now." / "Set up evals before you hit prompt burnout."