TheFooder
2d ago
My comment from Substack:
My company (crypto exchange /dco/dcm/fcm) has a subscription to Claude Code. I do not know what the subscription level is I just use it conversationally without a second thought to what a token is nor how many are used in the course of my tasks.
I am the head of operations (basically the main operator of the real-time trading systems). I do not fiddle with the codebase, however I use Claude a TON for finding error messages and the context around them. I'll ask it to parse code and print out work-flow, basic stuff like, "how does the config server interface with the matching engine," "when do the reports run," "who's on the access list," etc. I've found Claude useful in helping me troubleshoot customer issues, on-boarding clients with odd requests, building Grafana queries and dashboards, running audits, planning disaster recover tests, basically anything that I might have asked a dev about I can now ask AI to simply provide the information. It's almost always correct and when it isn't it's often due to actual issues with code clarity.
I use it a TON for developing small scale jobs that I don't want to bother devs with. I've 'vibe coded' programs for rolling contracts, audits (including best methods for audit requests), AWS log retrieval, and anything that ever gets even a little bit close to Git, which I love but mostly hate. I use it do update Terraform and Ansible code without a second thought. I use it for all kinds of timezone problems which are a constant bugbear of my particular role.
I use it is very useful to me as an agent. I tell it to do all kinds of petty things simply because I don't want to do them. I never think about the token count or context or anything beyond natural, free-flowing language. I have increased my overall productivity 200% (vibes baby). Things that were even a tiny pain-in-the-ass I just hand off to Claude. I can confidently say that it has made my need for a subordinate unnecessary, so that might be a chit in the, "uh-oh, Claude is replacing workers," bucket. I would rather use Claude more extensively than hire someone.
My perspective as an operator is that it must be helping devs simply by helping me not bother them. I don't know how prevalent this acrosss the software industry as real-time operations is sort of rare, but it's basically keeping me out of the dev's way 9-out-of-10 times. That alone MUST be a value-add, though one devs might not notice. Perhaps that's a useful data point for your evaluations.
I was surprised to see you didn't find it useful for Excel stuff. It's my go-to for excel formulas and sql queries and always gets me 90% of the way there. I feel like I simply don't have to think about that stuff anymore, which is great because I never liked writing Excel formulas or sql queries. I simply don't want to deal with it and Claude takes it right off my plate. Same with GIT and repo management. Phooey! Waste of time I never have to think about again. (NOTE: I don't let Claude access the database, so I have to help it with table structures and some specific elements. There is trepidation allowing AI to touch the DB in our firm.)
In my personal life, I tried using some other AIs on some music coding projects and they failed miserably. I have a programmable synth module from Rebel technologies called the Magus. You can write code for it in a handful of ways and then upload a binary to the device. I've tried ChatGPT5, Grok, AllenAI (but not my work Claude Code- gotta keep 'em separated!). I wanted to turn the Magus into a 4-channel mixer with some basic controls on the encoders. It understood the request but just couldn't get the project over the line. I eventually gave up. I figure there isn't enough interest in the underlying project (the company may be out-of-business) for AI to hook into, say, in comparison to writing psql queries.
That's my $0.02. I specifically use it like a ham-fisted troll and I think it's been mostly great. I'd give it an 82% (solid B) grade for this year over-all. I think there's a lot of low-level stuff that it's useful for, but you have to pay for it--the free stuff isn't very good.
TheFooder
2d ago
Surprised to see how dopey people still are, how can someone be a CTO and not know the difference between the models under the hood of Copilot? Would've thought a CTO would know better.
Even more hilariously, the CTO could have just asked AI what the differences are between the models. I feel like people don't seem to bother with the really low-hanging fruit AI is offering.
TheFooder
5d ago
This was the last mystery that got me to sit up and cheer: https://www.magnetic-press.com/blackwaterlilies/
While I loved the comic, the source novel is probably good as well. It was considered "un-filmable" but the comic hits hard, IMO. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33391439-black-water-lilies
I haven't watched any 'Knives Out' stuff and at this point I never will. No point.
TheFooder
5d ago
All I can say is that my company pays for the service. I'm a weird use-case because I use it a lot for code context, light scripting and other ops/dev/ops tasks. I"m not a dev. Anyway, I asked Claude-Code to describe itself:
describe yourself. what versions of software are you and how are you more performant than other versions?
⏺ I'm Claude Sonnet 4.5 (model ID: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929), Anthropic's CLI tool for software engineering tasks.
Performance improvements over previous versions:
- Speed: Significantly faster than Sonnet 3.5 - quicker response times for code generation and analysis
- Context window: 200K token limit (you can see the budget tracker in my responses)
- Reasoning: Better at multi-step planning, debugging complex issues, and understanding codebases
- Tool use: More efficient with parallel tool calls and better at choosing the right tools
- Code quality: Improved at writing idiomatic code across languages and following existing patterns
Compared to other Claude models:
- vs Opus: I'm faster and more cost-effective while matching quality for most coding tasks
- vs Haiku: I'm more capable for complex reasoning but slower
- vs Sonnet 3.5: Improved speed, accuracy, and extended context handling
I'm specifically optimized for CLI workflows - file operations, bash commands, git operations, code analysis, and multi-file edits. My knowledge cutoff is January 2025.
TheFooder
8d ago
Many projects are stalled waiting for someone else to complete a task.
Usually, the one guy on the team not using an LLM.
TheFooder
12d ago
Dude is also a devout Roman Catholic. Trying to shame him for being a virgin is probably not the best avenue of attack.
TheFooder
12d ago
McLuhan's famous adage, "the medium is the message" applies in this case. We've moved beyond the information era into the narrative era supported by a vast and all-encompassing media blanket. You literally cannot belive anything because everything is the story that someone wants to tell. Actual facts and information are at an extreme premium. That's the real tragedy.
TheFooder
16d ago
Walter Kirn has said numerous times that his read of the media surrounding Mangione tells him there will be an acquittal. I'm not super confident in that prediction myself, but I would take the under on him getting the death penalty. Seems like what you're seeing puts a chit in the Kirn basket.
TheFooder
16d ago
One can hope. It's jsut a nicer way to keep one's house, IMO. The Asians have it right.
TheFooder
17d ago
There was a point in time, after the Mexican-American war where Mexican lynchings were greater than black lynchings in some Western states. The relative peacefulness we see now took a long time to generate.
TheFooder
18d ago
Houellebecq’s Submission
I thought to meself, "I kmow that name..." Turns out I have Platform on my bookshelf, lo these past 15 or more years. I think I started to read it and had the same visceral rejection that I experienced reading Portnoy's Complaint and simply put it down. Maybe it's worth another spin on the Houellebecq tilt-a-whirl if this Submission book is any good.
TheFooder
18d ago
My view of that is that we (as a cohort) couldn't really afford the houses either. I'd add it as another chit in the 'this isn't a new problem' bucket.
TheFooder
22d ago
GenX here. I got into this with my supposedly intelligent GenX peers, both PhDs, who simply couldn't believe that at 19 years in the early 1990's I could see that all of this housing stuff was an unaffordable nightmare. Maybe half (if I'm being generous) of my friends own their homes and most didn't buy until well into their 40's. People pretend like this is a new problem but it was well in play 30 years ago.
TheFooder
2mo ago
You want a jihad but you don't want it to be stupid? Methinks you demand too much good sir!
TheFooder
2mo ago
I is minor and insignificant suggestion. I think Barbarian jsut fits better with the other three super-positions. A barbarian is a political superposition or a job, whereas a caveman is more of a species. anyway, cool idea nonetheless.
TheFooder
3mo ago
Don't know if he's relevant but he has a substack that pops up on my feed every now and then: sigmagame has 7k+ followers but a few hundred like per post. I didn't realize it was a person at first (who names their kid Vox Day?) and if you told me it was someone writing as someone else using AI I'd have to take it on faith.
TheFooder
3mo ago
Where does Kulak fit into this heirarchy?That dude seems pretty extreme to me...
TheFooder
3mo ago
degree to which they have not succeeded in making peaceful revolution impossible.
much confused! The Blues have succeeded in making peaceful revolution possible?
TheFooder
6mo ago
In the story the journalist wasn't a lib, just playing the role. The joke is that she was more conservative or based or w/e than the Bannon-ites. My read: the purported beliefs of most MAGA types, or typical young conservative, aren't anything beyond memes that make them feel good about themselves and the real ubermensch have no respect for them and will take them down too.
I think this all the time. 'News' is a mind-virus worthy of a bare few minutes a day--max. Yet it's addictive, somehow.
this is a long article, might take me some time to get through it, but one thing I notice straight off is the implicit assumption that all young people seem to share that "everything is political." It's just seeded into every aspect of everything everyone younger than 50 seems to want to talk about. It's not even questioned, it just is. I think this is a big part of the underlying problem because everyone is just desperate to be a Good Person (tm) and every life choice revolved around this basic motivation (even the people who overtly reject this have the same basic presumptions).
I really wish there were more "go fuck yourself" punks in the world. I feel like we need this energy to counteract the "I'm paddling my feet as fast as possible to be a Good Person (tm). I'm sick of Nice People (tm) and Good People (tm). It's not your job to save the world and trying to know every last detail about every possible threat to humanity just drives everyone insane.
I'll keep reading, it's not uninteresting just long. If something else catches my attention I'll reply again.
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