The original title is "The AI orientation tax: it's missing context, not discipline"

Short summary

The 'orientation tax'—time burned re-contextualizing across multiple in-flight projects—is worsened by AI coding agents that start every session from scratch. The author argues the real fix is context infrastructure (a single status home for all work), not discipline. Cited costs include ~12 minutes per agent session, up to 23 minutes per human interruption, and ~$240K/year for a 10-dev team losing 20% to switching.

• •Orientation tax is the hidden cost of re-contextualizing across multiple projects, now amplified by AI agents
• •The fix is context infrastructure (single status home), not willpower or discipline
• •Quantified costs: ~12 min/agent session, ~23 min/human interruption, ~$240K/year for a 10-dev team

Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.