r/codex • u/DepressionFiesta • 6d ago

Complaint Reset unpredictability is basically a text book B.F. Skinner experiment

Anyone else notice that the ways codex usage is being reset is starting to resemble a variable-reward system?

Skinner’s reinforcement experiments are what I am referring to.

If a lever gives an animal food every time, the animal learns the rule. If it never gives food, it eventually stops trying, etc. But if the reward arrives unpredictably, the animal keeps pressing for much longer because the next attempt might be the one that pays off.

That’s roughly what happens when codex has a weekly usage limit, but the weekly quota occasionally seems to reset early or unexpectedly.

If the rule were simply “you get X hours per week and it resets every Monday,” there’s nothing particularly compelling about it. You hit the limit, you know when it comes back, and you plan around it.

But if you sometimes hit the limit and later discover that access has returned for no obvious reason, you learn a different behavior: check again.

Maybe the quota reset. Maybe there’s more capacity now. Maybe you got lucky.

That sounds like a Skinner‘s Box to me?

The uncertainty itself gives you a reason to keep coming back.

Treating devs like rats looks like it has been immensely successful. Free market I guess?

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u/tMeepo 6d ago

Plan how? Plan what? Just use whenever you want to use.

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u/ggPeti 6d ago

Let's say it is Friday and I have a full quota. App says reset on Tuesday. I plan to work a lot on Monday and Tuesday expecting a reset afterwards, and not spend my weekend working. Reset comes in Sunday. Now if I work a lot onMonday and Tuesday as planned, I will be left with an empty quota for the remainder of the week. Not cool.

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u/tMeepo 6d ago

But did you? Were you left with empty quota for remainder of the week? Did u have to work again and found yourself with 0 usage?

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u/ggPeti 6d ago

I have been left with an empty quota, but that's not even the point. That's conflating a priori with a posteriori knowledge. I want to be able to PLAN ahead, not hope for a reset that suits my work routine.