3 ms·

What does he do when he wants to add new features, fix bugs, scale the platform etc?

linotype 2y ago
Probably loads the whole thing into Claude’s massive context window and asks it to make alterations. I do similar things with code bases on a smaller scale with ChatGPT all the time. Half the time I need to make small tweaks but it’s increased my productivity tremendously.
anonylizard 2y ago
Once you have paying customers, you can hire an actual developer. Claude is not 100x for any typical software work, but the biggest gains come from precisely 'non-typical work', which is previously impossible. Imagine a domain expert, who knows a niche super well with all the weird edge cases and untapped demand. Hiring a developer for it doesn't work because. 1. The communication costs are too high, the developer won't know the business niche in depth enough to make a good product. 2. The niche is not profitable enough to risk hiring a developer. Now LLMs allows the solo non-technical founder to make a MVP app, and put it to market to test, for very little cost and risk. Sure the app is not really extendable, may have to be heavily rewritten to expand and maintain, but hiring a developer then, will be a much lower risk task. It doesn't even reduce developer employment this way, as now there's a ton more niche use cases being opened up, and becoming profitable enough to support developers.
- CharlieDigital 2y ago
  This is exactly what I told him. If he gets to X customers, then hire a dev.
fhdsgbbcaA 2y ago
That’s the fun part: he’s likely not knowledgeable enough about his own code to know he should be looking for bugs. “It just works!”
- CharlieDigital 2y ago
  As a very senior dev and having worked in good number of startups, including YC backed startups, I can tell you that the hardest part is rarely technical for most SaaS. It's actually validating the idea, market, and business model. If he can get 10 or 20 paying customers, then it's easy to find money to fix or scale the code.
  - fhdsgbbcaA 2y ago
    I agree there, but the problem I’m pointing out is you can’t fix a problem you don’t see as a problem in the first place. This type of nonsense from Anthropic isn’t helpful whatsoever.
    - CharlieDigital 2y ago
      If you can't see the problem, it doesn't matter for an early startup; the only thing that matters is what users complain about or request and getting more users paying you. Everything can be fixed later once the idea itself has been validated.
      - fhdsgbbcaA 2y ago
        Data breaches, financial errors, and the like for an early stage company are a death sentence. That’s the type of error I’m suggesting, not some flakey CSS.
        CharlieDigital 2y ago
        Severely overestimating it. Death knell is not solving a problem in the first place. Almost everything is negotiable if you solve a valuable problem that people are willing to pay you to solve.
      - deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
svaha1728 2y ago
rm -rf and start over with better prompts /s

Probably loads the whole thing into Claude’s massive context window and asks it to make alterations. I do similar things with code bases on a smaller scale with ChatGPT all the time. Half the time I need to make small tweaks but it’s increased my productivity tremendously.

anonylizard 2y ago

Once you have paying customers, you can hire an actual developer. Claude is not 100x for any typical software work, but the biggest gains come from precisely 'non-typical work', which is previously impossible. Imagine a domain expert, who knows a niche super well with all the weird edge cases and untapped demand. Hiring a developer for it doesn't work because. 1. The communication costs are too high, the developer won't know the business niche in depth enough to make a good product. 2. The niche is not profitable enough to risk hiring a developer. Now LLMs allows the solo non-technical founder to make a MVP app, and put it to market to test, for very little cost and risk. Sure the app is not really extendable, may have to be heavily rewritten to expand and maintain, but hiring a developer then, will be a much lower risk task. It doesn't even reduce developer employment this way, as now there's a ton more niche use cases being opened up, and becoming profitable enough to support developers.

CharlieDigital 2y ago
This is exactly what I told him. If he gets to X customers, then hire a dev.

fhdsgbbcaA 2y ago

That’s the fun part: he’s likely not knowledgeable enough about his own code to know he should be looking for bugs. “It just works!”

CharlieDigital 2y ago
As a very senior dev and having worked in good number of startups, including YC backed startups, I can tell you that the hardest part is rarely technical for most SaaS. It's actually validating the idea, market, and business model. If he can get 10 or 20 paying customers, then it's easy to find money to fix or scale the code.
- fhdsgbbcaA 2y ago
  I agree there, but the problem I’m pointing out is you can’t fix a problem you don’t see as a problem in the first place. This type of nonsense from Anthropic isn’t helpful whatsoever.
  - CharlieDigital 2y ago
    If you can't see the problem, it doesn't matter for an early startup; the only thing that matters is what users complain about or request and getting more users paying you. Everything can be fixed later once the idea itself has been validated.
    - fhdsgbbcaA 2y ago
      Data breaches, financial errors, and the like for an early stage company are a death sentence. That’s the type of error I’m suggesting, not some flakey CSS.
      - CharlieDigital 2y ago
        Severely overestimating it. Death knell is not solving a problem in the first place. Almost everything is negotiable if you solve a valuable problem that people are willing to pay you to solve.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]

svaha1728 2y ago

rm -rf and start over with better prompts /s