Definitions by Seahill
Context collapse
noun. The mental and physical exhaustion that hits after a long session of working with AI Agents. The AI has a context window of hundreds of thousands of tokens; you do not. After hours of prompting, reading output, catching mistakes, re-explaining the requirements for the fourth time, and keeping track of what the AI changed in which file, your own working memory fills up and quietly shuts down.
Symptoms include rereading the same diff three times without absorbing it, forgetting what you originally asked for, approving changes with "looks fine I guess," and typing prompts like "no, the OTHER thing." Often accompanied by stiff shoulders, dry eyes, and a strong urge to lie on the floor.
Symptoms include rereading the same diff three times without absorbing it, forgetting what you originally asked for, approving changes with "looks fine I guess," and typing prompts like "no, the OTHER thing." Often accompanied by stiff shoulders, dry eyes, and a strong urge to lie on the floor.
"Can you review my PR?"
"Not today. I spent six hours pairing with Claude on the migration scripts and I'm in full context collapse. I just tried to Ctrl+Z a conversation with my wife."
"The whole team hit context collapse around 3 p.m. Someone suggested we start a new session, and the PO thought they meant going home."
Related forms:
Context-collapsed (adj.): In a state of context collapse. "Don't ask Ole anything, he's context-collapsed."
Compacting (v.): Taking a walk, getting coffee, or staring out the window to free up mental space, named after the AI's own trick of summarizing a long conversation to make room.
Fresh session (n.): A good night's sleep.
"Not today. I spent six hours pairing with Claude on the migration scripts and I'm in full context collapse. I just tried to Ctrl+Z a conversation with my wife."
"The whole team hit context collapse around 3 p.m. Someone suggested we start a new session, and the PO thought they meant going home."
Related forms:
Context-collapsed (adj.): In a state of context collapse. "Don't ask Ole anything, he's context-collapsed."
Compacting (v.): Taking a walk, getting coffee, or staring out the window to free up mental space, named after the AI's own trick of summarizing a long conversation to make room.
Fresh session (n.): A good night's sleep.
Context collapse by Seahill October 6, 2026
Claudegazing
verb / noun. The act of watching Claude work on a task in real time, transfixed by the scrolling output, instead of doing anything productive yourself. Most potent in its group form, when an entire team gathers around one screen to watch the AI think, write code, or run tests, collectively holding their breath until it either finishes or does something baffling.
Symptoms include leaning toward the monitor, narrating ("ooh, it's reading the config file now"), cheering when tests pass, and a shared groan when it says "Let me try a different approach."
Symptoms include leaning toward the monitor, narrating ("ooh, it's reading the config file now"), cheering when tests pass, and a shared groan when it says "Let me try a different approach."
"Standup was supposed to take 15 minutes, but someone asked Claude to refactor the auth module and the whole team ended up Claudegazing for 40."
"Are you working on that ticket?"
"Technically, yes. I'm Claudegazing it."
"Are you working on that ticket?"
"Technically, yes. I'm Claudegazing it."
Claudegazing by Seahill October 2, 2026
Claudesomnia
The condition where you tell yourself you'll go to bed after "just one more prompt" in Claude Code, but suddenly it's 3:47 AM and your app has a feature nobody asked for.
Claudesomnia by Seahill September 24, 2026