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Turning Claude Code into my best design partner

betweentheprompts.com

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Re: Turning Claude Code into my best design partner

#41

Post by samrus »

a_bonobo wrote: post #31
hetspookjee wrote: post #6

Over the last 2 weeks (evenings only) I've spend a lot of time crafting the "perfect prompt" for claude code to one shot the project. I ended up with a rather small CLAUDE.md file that references 8 other MD files, ranging from project_architecture, models_spec, build_sequence, test_hierarchy, test_scenarios, and some other files. It is a project for model based governance of Databricks Unity Catalog, with which I do…

I feel we're developing something like what made Test-Driven Development so strong: TTD forced you to sit down and design your system first, rather than making it all up on the fly. In the past we mapped the system while we were building the code for it. This kind of AI-driven development feels very similar to that. By forcing you to sit down and map the territory you're planning to build in, the coding itself become…

thats a great way to put it. the LLMs can't design things, thats way too above their capabilities. they can pretend to design things and even fool people, but they're jsut regurgitating other designs from their training data (and for a todo app, thats enough). but it we do the design for them, they're really really good at putting meat on that skeleton

Re: Turning Claude Code into my best design partner

#42

Post by MoreQARespect »

mattmanser wrote: post #38
a_bonobo wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel we're developing something like what made Test-Driven Development so strong: TTD forced you to sit down and design your system first, rather than making it all up on the fly. In the past we mapped the system while we were building the code for it. This kind of AI-driven development feels very similar to that. By forcing you to sit down and map the territory you're planning to build in, the coding itself become…

I feel TDD ended up fizzling out quite a bit in the industry, with some evangelists later admitting they'd taken to often writing the code first, then the tests. To me it's always felt like waterfall in disguise and just didn't fit how I make programs. I feel it's just not a good way to build a complex system with unknown unknowns. That the AI design process seems to rely on this same pattern feels off to me, and sho…

TDD fizzled because not enough emphasis was put on writing high level tests which matched user stories and too much emphasis was put on it as a tool of design.

Re: Turning Claude Code into my best design partner

#43

Post by samrus »

ticoombs wrote: post #2

I used to joke about prompt engineering. But by jiminy it is a thing now. I swear sometimes I waste a good 10-20minutes writing up a good prompt and initial plan just so that claudecode can systematically implement something. My usage is nearly the same as OP. Plan plan plan save as a file and then new context and let it rip. That's the one thing I'd love, a good cli (currently using charm and cc) which allows me to…

honestly "prompt engineering" is just the vessel for architecting the solution. its like saying "diagram construction" really took off as a skill. its architecting with a new medium

Re: Turning Claude Code into my best design partner

#44

Post by ionwake »

unixhero wrote: post #26
actionfromafar wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A waterfall, frozen, in time?

Well waterfall is how we built the old world. Piece by piece, module by module, roads, bridges, buildings, boats.

I got intrigued by your comment, I couldn't wrap my head about a process just changing. Got AI to throw out this table, but I think its of interest:

Waterfall ~1970, Agile ~2001, Continuous (DevOps) ~2015, Autonomous Dev ~2030, Self-Evolving Systems ~2040, Goal-Directed Ecosystems ~2050+

Re: Turning Claude Code into my best design partner

#46

Post by ionwake »

razemio wrote: post #12
hetspookjee wrote: post #6

Over the last 2 weeks (evenings only) I've spend a lot of time crafting the "perfect prompt" for claude code to one shot the project. I ended up with a rather small CLAUDE.md file that references 8 other MD files, ranging from project_architecture, models_spec, build_sequence, test_hierarchy, test_scenarios, and some other files. It is a project for model based governance of Databricks Unity Catalog, with which I do…

That is exactly my issue. I am more districted while being more productive. It feels just wrong, but works for now. In the long run, I need to find a solution for this. What works best for now, is to let multiple agents run on multiple repos of the same project solving different tasks. This way, I stay somewhat focused, since I constantly need to approve things. Just like a Projekt Manager with a big team... Indeed c…

I agree I think this is the way

Re: Turning Claude Code into my best design partner

#47

Post by Scarblac »

zuInnp wrote: post #39

What I don't get about all the "if you plan it out first, it gets better" approach is, how did they work before?! For anything bigger than small size features, I always think about what I do and why I do things. Sometimes in my head, sometimes on paper, a Confluence page or a white board. I don't really get it. 80 % of software engineering is to figure out what you need and how to achieve this. You check with the sta…

I think I usually mix the coding and the designing more. Start coding something, then keep shaping and improving it for a while until it's good.

And of course for most things, there's a pretty obvious way it's probably going to work, no need to spend much time on that.

Re: Turning Claude Code into my best design partner

#49

Post by dustingetz »

fuckaj wrote: post #37
dustingetz wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the investor bull case in AI is to cannabalize the labor markets at 15% margin, so 1:1 labor:AI budget is where we are headed next - e.g. $100k/100k for a senior dev. The AI share will come out of dev budgets, so expect senior salaries to fall and team sizes to shrink by a lot if this stuff works. Remember we’re in the land grab phase, all subsidized by VCs, but we’re speed running through the stages as and this phas…

What if once the 100k dev jobs are gone the equivalent value in terms of AI is nowhere near that. Say it is 5k instead? Due to oversupply. First you needed humans who can code. But now you need scalable compute. Equivalent would be hiring those people to wave a flag infront of a car. They are replaced bt modern cars, but you dont get to receive the flag wavers wage as captured value for long if at all.

lets call that stage 2 when the labor/ai spend drops below 1.0, to understand what that might look like i would compare to surgeon model. so like $500k for a Surgeon to manage outcomes with 10x AI leverage. Arguments for: managers are compensated proportional to the capital risk they are responsible for so it makes sense that as the leverage increases the comp increases, even if the ratio drops before it u-turns and climbs. Four arguments against: 1) the economy is going to look very different with different dynamic equilibrium in surprising places; 2) this assumes software best practices remain as they are today with no disruptive breakthroughs which is unlikely, 3) systems that promote inequality are vulnerable to constant attack so it may not be a stable equilibrium 4) it may not even work - code complexity scales faster than linearly with lines of code, where is the break even point and is it higher or lower on the complexity curve than the breakeven point today?
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