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Claude Code is being dumbed down?

symmetrybreak.ing

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Re: Claude Code is being dumbed down?

#81

I'm not sure this is a regression, at least how I use it - you can hit control + o to expand, and usually the commands it runs show the file path(s) it's using, and I'm really paranoid with it, and I didn't even notice this change.

i've never had to use control + o before but with the latest changes, i give Opus a simple task that should take a few seconds and it's like "used 15k tokens" and "thinking" for three minutes with absolutely zero indication or visibility as to what it's actually doing and i have to ESC ESC it to stop and ask what the FUCK are you actually doing claude?

Yes, I’ve been evaluating since the start of the year and since 4.6 suddenly the most innocuous requests will sit there “thinking” for 5+ minutes and if I can get it to show me the thinking it’s just going round in circles.

Or, it decided it needs to get API documentation out and spends tens of thousands of tokens fetching every file in a repo with separate tool use instead of reading the documentation.

Profitable, if you are charging for token usage, I suspect.

But I’m reaching the point where I can’t recommend claude to people who are interesting in skeptically trying it out, because of the default model.

Re: Claude Code is being dumbed down?

#82

There are a lot of non developer claude code users these days. The hype about vibe coding lets everyone think they can now be an engineer. Problem is if anthropic caters to that crowd the devs that are using it to do somewhat serious engineering tasks and don't believe in the "run an army of parallel agents and pray" methodology are being alienated. Maybe Claude Code web or desktop could be targeted to these new vibe…

If 80% of their paying customers are vibe coders then it makes sense to make IDE “easy” for them. “Hey, Claude, make a website. Don’t make mistakes.”

Or, it could serve as a textbook example how to make your real future long term customers (=fluent coders) angry… what a strategy :)

Re: Claude Code is being dumbed down?

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> FWIW I think LLMs are a dead end for software development, and that the people who think otherwise are exceptionally gullible. By this do you mean there isn't much more room for future improvement, or that you feel it is not useful in its current form for software development? I think the latter is hard position to defend, speaking as a user of it. I am definitely more productive with it now, although I'm not sure…

> By this do you mean there isn't much more room for future improvement

I don't expect that LLM technology will improve in a way that makes it significantly better . I think the training pool is poisoned, and I suspect that the large AI labs have been cooking the benchmark data for years to suspect that their models are improving more quickly than they are in reality.

That being said, I'm sure some company will figure out new strategies for deploying LLMs that will cause a significant improvement.

But I don't expect that improvements are going to come from increased training.

> [Do] you feel it is not useful in its current form for software development?

IME using LLMs for software development corrodes my intuitive understanding of an enterprise codebase.

Since the advent of LLMs, I've been asked to review many sloppy 500+/1000+ line spam PRs written by arrogant Kool-Aid drinking coworkers. If someone is convinced that Claude Code is AGI, they won't hesitate to drop a slop bomb on you.

Basically I feel that coding using LLMs degrades my understanding of what I'm working on and enables coworkers to dominate my day with spam code review requests.

Re: Claude Code is being dumbed down?

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

This has to be a bot account, right? 2 days old. Yesterday "I don't know about you, but I benefit so much from using Claude at work that I would gladly pay $1,500-$2,000 per month to keep using it."

Agreed, those comments are all over the map, and 22 comments in 2 days!

Re: Claude Code is being dumbed down?

#85

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…

"It appears minor on the surface but their response to all the comments tells you everything you need to know."

I mean I hope it's just a single developer being stubborn rather than guidance from management asking everyone to simplify Claude Code for maximum mass appeal. But I agree otherwise, it's telling.

Re: Claude Code is being dumbed down?

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

This has to be a bot account, right? 2 days old. Yesterday "I don't know about you, but I benefit so much from using Claude at work that I would gladly pay $1,500-$2,000 per month to keep using it."

Agreed, those comments are all over the map, and so many comments in 2 days!

Re: Claude Code is being dumbed down?

#88
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> FWIW I think LLMs are a dead end for software development, and that the people who think otherwise are exceptionally gullible. I think this takes away from the main thrust of your argument which is the marketing campaign and to me makes you seem conspiratorial minded. LLMs can be both useful and also mass astroturfing can be happening. Personally I have witnessed non coders (people who can code a little but have no…

I'm not trying to be rhetorically effective, I'm stating my true belief

IN MY GENUINELY HELD OPINION, LLMs generate shit code and the people who disagree don't know what good code looks like.

Re: Claude Code is being dumbed down?

#89
post #46

At least now we also have a tracker: https://marginlab.ai/trackers/claude-code/

Saw this the other day and loved it. Especially seeing Opus 4.5 degrading prior to the 4.6 release (IIRC) and Codex staying very stable and even improving over time.

But FYI the blog post is not about the actual model being dumbed down, but the command line interface.

Re: Claude Code is being dumbed down?

#90
post #48
post #6

All my information about this is being based on feels, because debugging isn't really feasible. Verbose mode is a mess, and there's no alternative. It still does what I need so I'm okay with it, but I'm also on the $20 plan so it's not that big of a worry for me. I did sense that the big wave of companies is hitting Anthropic's wallet. If you hadn't realized, a LOT of companies switched to Claude. No idea why, and th…

I can't watch a YouTube video without seeing a Claude ad. Same for friends. Safe for non-programmer friends.

NFT moment :) Where did it end btw?
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