The week I lost the plot at a startup where the tools worked as advertised

# Summary The author chronicles their experience at Cogentiv.ai, a European AI startup with a performative, burnout-culture atmosphere where the founder encourages aggressive AI tool usage and personal branding around a vague mission to build "the cognitive substrate of Europe." Key moments include a leaked memo (with an embarrassing copy-paste error) mandating "reflexive AI usage," a leaderboard gamifying token spending that has driven an employee to exhaustion and emotional breakdown, and the absurd introduction of a wellness chatbot that employees are expected to confide in rather than actual human support.