Momentum vs. Alignment Tax - Hidden Costs in Your LLM Session

Once I was in an interview, and I was asked what motivated me. My answer was momentum. And maybe that's why working with AI can be so engaging sometimes. And maybe it's also why it could be so frustrating. When we feel like we have momentum and we're moving quickly than usual, that's motivating. But when you're stuck and you can't get the LLM to do what you want it to, despite prompting in 5 different ways, it's frustrating. A lot of times, we end up figuring it out and then we call the session "productive." We completed the task, shipped the thing, and then we're off to the next thing.