[JackC]

(I read the post but not paper.)

Did you measure subjective fatigue as one way to explain the misperception that AI was faster? As a developer-turned-manager I like AI because it's easier when my brain is tired.

[narush]

We attempted to! We explore this more in the section Trading speed for ease (C.2.5) in the paper (https://metr.org/Early_2025_AI_Experienced_OS_Devs_Study.pdf).

TLDR: mixed evidence that developers make it less effortful, from quantitative and qualitative reports. Unclear effect.