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Claude Code is being dumbed down?

symmetrybreak.ing

281–290 of 732 posts

Re: Claude Code is being dumbed down?

#281

> That’s it. “Read 3 files.” Which files? Doesn’t matter. “Searched for 1 pattern.” What pattern? Who cares. Product manager here. Cynically, this is classic product management: simplify and remove useful information under the guise of 'improving the user experience' or perhaps minimalism if you're more overt about your influences. It's something that as an industry we should be over by now. It requires deep understa…

> Many people have been taught that streamlining and removal is positive. Over the past ten years or so the increasing de-featuring of software under the guise of 'simplification' has become a critical issue for power users. For any GUI apps which have a mixed base of consumer and power users, I mostly don't update them anymore because they're as likely to get net worse vs better. It's weird that companies like MSFT…

What in Office has been a degradation? Just curious. I mostly agree about Windows.

Re: Claude Code is being dumbed down?

#282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone and I mean everyone keeps parroting this "inflection point" marketing hype, which is so damn tiring.

But I used to be a skeptic but now in the last month

Yes, as all of modern politics illustrates, once one has staked out a position on an issue it is far more important to stick to one's guns regardless of observations rather than update based on evidence.

Re: Claude Code is being dumbed down?

#283
post #31

Vibe-coders griping about Claude's vibe-coded CLI hits all the right vibes.

I hate to say it, but "vibe-coders" are just "coders" now. It's a huge shift, but we need to start thinking of AI-tools as developer tools, just like a formatter, linter, or IDE would be. The right move is diversity. Just like diversity of editors/IDEs. We need good open source claude code alternatives.

Well, the term lacks clarity and a shift of meaning.

If you define "vibe-coders" as people who just write prompts and don't look at code - no, they ain't coders now.

But if you mean people who do LLM-assistet coding, but still read code (like all of those who are upset by this change) - then sure, they always have been coders.

Re: Claude Code is being dumbed down?

#284

My last experience with Claude support was a fun merry go round. I had used a Visa card to buy monthly Pro subscription. One day I ran out of credits so I go to buy extra credit. But my card is declined. I recheck my card limit and try again. Still declined. To test the card I try extending the Pro subscription. It works. That's when I notice that my card has a security feature called "Secure by Visa". To complete tr…

Its true. They have no idea why your bank was declining the charge, only that it was declined.

Re: Claude Code is being dumbed down?

#285
Perhaps some power user of Claude Code can enlighten me here, but why not just using OpenCode? I admit I've only briefly tried Claude Code, so perhaps there are unique features there stopping the switch, or some other form of lock-in.

Re: Claude Code is being dumbed down?

#286
post #251
post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I give pupils the solution book will they learn or just copy the answers? There is a reason why nowadays games start to help massively if the player gets stuck.

"There is a reason why nowadays games start to help massively if the player gets stuck" You mean those "free" games, that are hard and grindy by design and the offered help comes in the shape of payed perks to solve the challenges?

No, those paid games where NPCs starts to point to clues if the player takes too long to solve a riddle or where you can skip the hard parts if you fail to often.

Re: Claude Code is being dumbed down?

#287
post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, just use OpenCode. It works with Claude Code Max, and the TUI is 100x better. The only thing that sucks is Compaction.

Nope, OpenCode is nowhere near Claude Code. It's amazing how much other agentic tools suck in comparison to Claude Code. I'd love to have a proper alternative. But they all suck. I keep trying them every few months and keep running back to Claude Code. Just yesterday I installed Cursor and Codex, and removed both after a few hours. Cursor disrespected my setting to ask before editing files. Codex renamed my tabs afte…

5.3 Codex on cursor is better than Claude code

Re: Claude Code is being dumbed down?

#288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Product management might be the worst meme in the industry. Hire people who have never used the product and don't think like or accurately represent our users, then let them allocate engineering resources and gate what ships. What could go wrong? It should be a fad gone by at this point, but people never learn. Here's what to do instead: Find your most socially competent engineer, and have them talk to users a couple…

I have worked with some really really good product managers. But not lately. Lately it’s been people who have very little relevant domain expertise, zero interest in putting in the time to develop said expertise beyond just cataloguing and regurgitating feedback from the customers they like most on a personal level, and seem to mostly have only been selected for the position because they are really good at office pol…

There are individuals who have good taste for products in certain domains. Their own preferences are an accurate approximation for those of the users. Those people might add value when they are given control of the product.

That good taste doesn't translate between domains very often. Good taste for developer tools doesn't mean good taste for a video game inventory screen. And that's the crux of the problem. There is a segment of the labor market calling themselves "product manager" who act like good taste is domain independent, and spread lies about their importance to the success of every business. What's worse is that otherwise smart people (founders, executives) fall for it because they think hiring them is what they are supposed to do.

Over time, as more and more people realized that PM is a side door into big companies with lots of money, "Product Manager" became an imposter role like "Scrum Master". Now product orgs are pretty much synonymous with incompetence.

Re: Claude Code is being dumbed down?

#289

As soon as there is a viable alternative to Claude Code, I'm gone after this change. It appears minor on the surface but their response to all the comments tells you everything you need to know. They don't even want to concede at all, or at least give a flag to enable the old behavior, what was deployed and working for many users before. It's a signal that someone, somewhere at Anthropic is making decisions based on…

Am I right that they still refuse to read AGENTS.md?

Re: Claude Code is being dumbed down?

#290

I’m a heavy Claude code user and it’s pretty clear they’re starting to bend under their vibe coding. Each Claude code update breaks a ton of stuff, has perf issues, etc. And then this. They want to own your dev workflow and for some reason believe Claude code is special enough to be closed source. The react TUI is kinda a nightmare to deal with I bet. I will say, very happy with the improvements made to Codex 5.3. I’…

I switched to Codex 5.3 too, it's cheaper also anyway and as dumb as it sounds, Scam Altman is actually the less annoying CEO compared to Amodei which is kind of an achievement. Amodei really looking more and more like some huckster giving these idiotic predictions to the press.
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