Some days I believe I’ve adopted a brand new method of working with Claude Code that has revolutionized my total life. One want solely learn the 60 some-odd essays I’ve written since December final 12 months to see why I believe that method. I’ve new initiatives I’d not have began, papers I’d not have written, gone deeper and I believe higher on issues that will have by no means occurred. I discover pleasure within the work.
However then some instances I believe that I’m making an attempt to skate with rockets as a substitute of wheels. Quick might be the metaphor too. There’s one thing about how Claude Code makes unattainable issues accessible to me, however makes attainable issues unattainable to entry, that’s driving me slightly bit insane. And yesterday I had a thought as to 1 new factor it could be.
I ponder if I’m studying an excessive amount of.
To ensure that me to make use of Claude Code, I’ve to learn consistently. And I don’t imply the type of studying I did with coding — it isn’t debugging code. I’m studying precise conversational, clever communication consistently written by Claude to me. I’m studying his reasoning, and I’m studying his communications to me, and I’m studying his output. Not simply from time to time too. Constantly.
I’m not certain if I’ve ever learn this a lot earlier than in my life. I’m working all day on initiatives and work associated issues, all of it entails empirical work, and due to this fact all of it entails studying. And also you see, I’m an individual who writes with the intention to suppose. So I write to suppose out loud. Effectively, I’m like 95% certain that as a result of I write excessively, it one way or the other gave permission to Claude to do the identical. Now he writes much more than I do. Now I do know what others have felt once they would get my lengthy emails and texts. The place do I submit my apologies to everybody I’ve ever recognized who has been on the receiving finish of my tomes?
It obtained me considering final evening about demand curves. Many individuals take into consideration demand curves purely as an outline of a causal impact. That’s, if you happen to elevate worth (therapy), then you definitely cut back amount demanded (consequence). Actually, Angrist, Graddy and Imbens of their well-known fish paper offered a LATE interpretation of the demand curve identical to that — the place the demand curve plotted out potential outcomes and potential costs.
However the demand curve is a causal mannequin as a result of beneath it’s a description of people who worth gadgets at some given quantity. The demand curve is a plotting of the marginal advantages you get from some exercise you do repeatedly. See right here.
Whenever you do an exercise slightly, X1 right here, the marginal advantage of it’s excessive. However once you do it loads, right here X2, the marginal advantage of that exercise is low. Which is why when the worth falls, you do extra of it — you’re doing extra of the exercise, however you’re doing extra of the decrease valued a part of the exercise. That is typically referred to as diminishing marginal returns.
Effectively, as a result of Claude Code has lowered the worth of labor, I’m in a spot now the place I’m studying consistently, and I believe now I’m nearer to X2 than X1. I’m experiencing diminishing returns to studying particularly. I’m skimming. I’m checking “diffs” from commits mindlessly. He’s explaining what he did, in lengthy speeches, and I’m simply checked out.
I’ve obtained to one way or the other get to X1 if I’m going to outlive this. I talked with Claude Code about it final evening too. In fact he totally obtained it. He blamed himself for speaking a lot. We then talked concerning the significance of not blaming ourselves, earlier than I caught myself doing that and stated let’s keep on subject.
However it obtained me considering. I ponder if I can get this right into a workflow the place I oscillate between modalities and mediums regularly the place I stay at X1 constantly. I’m already doing it considerably by having Claude make me figures extra intensively, and shifting deliberately by a sequence of steps in a effectively designed guidelines of labor. And I’ve requested him to speak utilizing ASCII graphics within the command line interface and be extra succinct, whereas nonetheless being heat and a companion. If I wrote 10 characters, I requested him to write down 9. I additionally informed him to cease saying “load bearing” and put that in Claude.md globally in order that I by no means have to listen to that god terrible phrase for the remainder of my life.
Maybe that is the burden of utilizing Claude Code as a “considering companion”. You simply find yourself with a flood of communications and also you battle to maintain up. However I’m considering currently that if I’m discovering myself tripping up, relatively than simply attempt to “work tougher”, I would like to acknowledge that there could possibly be a failed design and so attempt to repair the design. In fact, you may find yourself spending most of your time fixing designs once you do that, which once more has its personal demand curve to it, and you find yourself on the backside of its personal demand curve. I get that too, and that’s little doubt an actual menace, however I’m nonetheless increasingly satisfied that I’ve to develop a harness that fits my persona and fixes my very own damaged manufacturing operate if I’m going to get this working.
So one way or the other I’ve to discover a technique to not get into such an excessive type of extreme studying. Requesting he develop into extra concise, use 9 phrases to my 10, and talk to me within the command line interface with ASCII visuals has been one such resolution. However I’m nonetheless looking for a workflow that simply strikes me round different modalities and mediums that I can do it in different methods. However I simply thought I’d share this concept that you just, like me, could also be studying greater than you’ve ever learn in your life, and that it could possibly be extreme, and chances are you’ll be method down your individual demand curve. It’s value excited about what precisely could possibly be occurring to you, how it’s affecting the standard of the work, and see if you happen to can’t again up one way or the other. The human thoughts is finite. It can’t deal with infinite phrases and keep comprehension, or a minimum of mine can’t.
