Idiot between two models
Friends were using Perplexity in 2022. I was perplexed. I’m usually early to tech but It all felt forced. I’m not a coder or engineer and that’s probably why it was coding and building that finally drew me into using…not Perplexity but dabbling with the other tools. It wasn’t until February or March of this year that Claude was good enough for a non-coder like me. That feels late but it’s the truth. And, now I’m a bit addicted to building with Claude Code.
Replit, Lovable and the other vibe coding tools just didn’t cut it for me in 2024/2025. I tried but got nowhere. I was using Claude, GPT, and Gemini. All tabs open at the same time. For some reason, I headed down the path using Gemini to guide a build of the first generation of a venture scout engine/agent. The output lived in Google Sheets. Google made it easy to use Gemini + App Script + Sheets. I spent three straight days building the thing - not kidding. I was thinking “oh this is Google’s space to win or lose” - the scout worked really well for a month or so and then the hallucinating started. The system hallucinated 30 ventures. Then I stopped using Gemini. I outgrew the spreadsheet anyway…a familiar feeling…it was time for a real tool.
And, then after a coffee with a friend (and at his recommendation) I decided to lean heavy into Claude. I re-downloaded the desktop app and played around. I jumped around between Chat and CoWork and Code trying to find my rhythm. I stumbled into a $300 Anthropic bill - why is billing so confusing?!!! (Does anyone else get an email every day for a bill update of $11.12 that isn’t really the cost for the day?). Claude convinced me (incorrectly) that my Max “all you can eat” plan only covered Chat and that all Code and CoWork activity was consumption-based (metered) so I developed this swivel chair (sneakernet?) method between Chat and Code to avoid $300 bills. Not only was I strategizing and building prompts in Chat but cutting and pasting back and forth between Chat and Code - non-stop. I was the idiot in the middle of two models. I did this for a good two months - it drove me nuts but it worked. I built a reliable, autonomous venture scout with a scoring engine and CRM. It also led to Claudefog.