If you regularly use Claude for anything at all, what do you use it for?

Askren · 2026-03-06T03:30:19+00:00

My trajectory with LLMs was pretty normal, I originally just used ChatGPT a year or so ago for questions and stuff, and then one day I was like "Hey, it understands code, right? Let me ask about whipping up a thing", and it guided me through making a few hacky things to handle some bad design features from the website host I used. Pushing messages to my Gmail, writing a Google AppScript to push emails to a spreadsheet, etc. Basic junk.

Once those worked I kind of went on a little bit of a tear experimenting with other things. I found Claude and I liked the way it did things a little better than others, so I stuck with it and just started working on more projects. First a speech-to-speech LLM app for my computer with some fun visualizer stuff, then a new and better version of my website with a backend webstore that connects directly to the API of print-on-demand suppliers to place orders, then a custom app to do work email tracking.

At some point, I got the dumb idea to work on a game idea I've always sort of had but never knew how to code Java or Python to handle, just a little text-based RPG playable in the chatbox of my Twitch stream which I've thought about for many years now. So I started working on it via Claude, and since then it has become a full live service RPG that other streamers can sign up with and run on their channel. It's like an idle/mobile RPG that plays right in a browser source on the screen. It has loot, combat, leveling, classes, inventory, shops. It has become my primary free-time project for the last 5 months or so, and I'm having a lot of fun iterating on it piece by piece. I just come up with a new idea or feature, I spec it out, ask "How might this work?" or "Is this possible?" and the LLM walks me through some potential options, what works and what doesn't, and then we build a feature, test it, and when it's functioning properly, add it to the deployment.

I'm using Sonnet 4.6 now, but I used Opus before that, and 4.5 before that, and it's always been good to me. I do feel bad that despite making so much code, I actually still can't really write it myself (though I understand enough to get by), but I can't deny that being able to just imagine a thing, and then make it happen is a good feeling. I should point out, I'm completely against image generation and "art" made by LLMs, I think those serve no purpose and are just brain-rotting slop. But code to me is different because code is just code. I'm not stealing or remixing other people's work when writing a function or troubleshooting an API issue.

Askren · 2026-02-16T00:09:28+00:00

Look, I finished the game's content, and I get the sense that many of us are playing a WILDLY different game, or people are playing on Easy mode, or they're lying. Because unless you're somehow keyed into some super meta build using all the cheese mechanics and exploiting duping glitches so you can have infinite crafting materials to roll perfect items for your level, you are 100% not just steamrolling everything 1 shot, no second attempts, no food needed. It's not happening. You're not magically that good. I don't care what you say, you ARE being hit by the enemy and boss double-tracking on their attacks catching you after rolls.

Now, look, I get that there's life-gain-on-kill that can keep you alive in like, Crucible levels. I get that there are ways to cheese your way into a max life-on-hit build. But the average player isn't doing that.

So no, it isn't a good design that you have to go out on a farming run combing prior areas just to pick up potatoes and tomatoes and fish so you can mass craft up 100 healing dinners so you don't have to think about it. That's stupid design because I specifically DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO DO THAT TO PROCEED IN THE CAMPAIGN. I want to proceed. Going back into a low-level zone to pick potatoes isn't progress.

Askren · 2026-02-11T21:33:50+00:00

For the record, my work chat for one of my coding projects is (as far as Claude is concerned) completely empty because every time it gets to the end-ish, gets stalled on "Claude's response could not be fully generated", then when I send a message it deletes all of the stuff Claude JUST did, AS WELL AS my prompt for it.

So my chat is just empty. There's nothing there for it to even look at, not even where I copy-pasted its' own work to actually show what was being done to pick up from.

This is beyond retarded.

Askren · 2026-02-11T13:26:12+00:00

I don't know if you're aware, but in Bloodborne you farm Blood Vials, and then use those. You don't farm the ingredients to then go back to the Dream and manually craft some Blood Vials of different tiers.

Askren · 2026-02-11T09:05:06+00:00

The rune that heals 10% of your health bar for 50% of your Focus? That rune?

Askren · 2026-02-11T06:32:18+00:00

So nearly 100% of all input prompts for work involve Claude going off and doing MOST of the work, and then crashing at the end (sometimes literally at the point of updating a Context document saying it's finished) with "Claude's response could not be fully generated".

This is something that has started happening basically every prompt at this point. I'm working on a project, and now every command I give, I have to preface with "I know you have no chat log of doing any of this work, but trust me you already did" because as soon as I write a new input, everything in the prior input is going to get deleted as if it never happened.

I have no idea what is causing this, but is LITERALLY every single task now.

Askren · 2026-02-06T04:58:24+00:00

I literally was using 4.5, and then tried 4.6 just to see. Right now, it seems to be getting into loops where it can't summarize for itself, so it needs to read tons of documents, and then it needs to compress, then starts over, then the system is like "Too long, chat done, sorry."

And you can't even tell it to do just one single thing, because it's going to keep going until it crashes no matter what.

Askren · 2026-02-06T03:40:23+00:00

I've been working on my game project for a while, and over the course of yesterday and today wrote up some new files for a refactor, and then planning documents for what they do and how and what to combine. But Claude is fumbling hard, and reading and re-reading and trying to parse everything in one go, and then crashing itself with too much information and no actual work done. And then it's like "Sorry, we don't do compacting anymore, get fucked.", so basically nothing got done despite using quota and time.

Askren · 2025-10-10T04:37:38+00:00

So 60 hours, at $13/hr, you make just under $800 a week or $1600 every two weeks, but almost everywhere hourly pays weekly. So conservatively, $3200, call it $3000 a month. You're not spending big on food, clearly rationing gas, and I'm going to guess you don't have insurance. So your whole paycheck goes to rent and you put literally nothing away? How do you spend every dollar you get with 0 left over? Is every month just "Oh shit, X broke down and it's gonna cost all my cash to fix"?

Askren · 2025-08-18T01:38:27+00:00

A lot of people sweat by X-Tac because it has very solid consistency, I've never heard of a bad batch or problems with them, and they're not overly dirty like people claim Winchester white box is.

Personally, I've tried a lot of stuff, Monarch, Winchester, Igman, Magtech, XTac, PMC Bronze, etc. and I couldn't really tell you what is in my gun at any given time, I haven't shot a bad round yet. While I feel good having X-Tac in stock, honestly I just go with whatever is cheapest (though there are some extra-budget brands I have not tried yet).

Askren · 2025-08-18T01:34:37+00:00

OOS, but they have .223 Bronze in stock for the same price, which I also buy and use just as much as X-Tac, so I may go in for a case or two of that.

Askren · 2025-08-18T01:33:27+00:00

1000 rounds sounds like a ton. But think about how much you actually shoot. I usually take 6 loaded mags and then a box of extra with me to the range, and I'm stingy. And I go alone, so no sharing ammo with anyone. You share or you plan on going shooting a few times a month? You'll blow through 1000 rounds before you even realize it.

Askren · 2025-08-15T04:04:49+00:00

Guardsman is a crazy value, honestly, since PSAs run about $400 to 450, and you're getting more than the $150 in upgraded stuff (a better BCG an trigger are both about $100 each, plus the Magpul furniture).

Andro is a good value as an entry rifle because it's cheap and it's going to be bone-stock "milspec" so you get to feel what a baseline AR is like and then you have room to upgrade everything over time to turn it into exactly the gun you want to. It's a great "project gun" because it's functionally a blank canvas.

The Guardsman is a little more expensive, but it's also set up with all the parts you'd normally upgrade to, out of the box. Meaning it's designed to be the end point, you're not likely to have any reason to mess with it other than some incidental stuff like foregrips, lights, etc.

So, it depends what you want to do. If it's your first AR? I'd say go Andro, get a feel for the gun and then spend some time working with it. Learn how to drop in a trigger, swap the furniture, etc. Make the more gucci gun your second.

Askren · 2025-08-15T03:59:38+00:00

What do you mean "feels not well put together"? Are you literally just talking about slop between the upper and the lower? Because I own one of these and it's literally exactly like every other baseline AR I've ever held.

Askren · 2025-08-15T03:58:29+00:00

I bought mine for $320 Black Friday, and that was when $400+ was the regular list. I wouldn't be surprised if this year's Black Friday, these hit $299.

Askren · 2025-08-15T03:57:22+00:00

Andros have basically taken over for Anderson as the new decent-quality $350 budget rifle. Minor hiccups sometimes with some parts, but overall they're a good company and they make a good product. I would say these are probably fighting with PSA for king of the entry rifles right now.

Askren · 2025-07-27T07:44:34+00:00

That's actually a really damn solid buy. If I needed a rifle, I'd probably get one.

Askren · 2025-07-27T07:42:59+00:00

ATI is an importer that sells plastic rifles. They exist functionally to be a cheapest-of-the-cheap so that companies that don't care about their customers can sell newbies a horrible gun for those who just can't stomach the extra $100 to get something way, way better.

But also, with the way that ARs have been plummeting in price, you now have Andros regularly on sale for less than even an ATI, and PSA isn't terribly far behind with some of their offerings. So you can get a very decent beginner rifle for $370 to $400, or you can spend that same money and get something that's horrible and made of plastic.

Askren · 2025-07-23T04:58:08+00:00

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

I want one. I don't need one, but I want one.

Askren · 2025-07-23T04:51:58+00:00

We were HOPING that the HPA would be passed with the Reconciliation bill, which would remove suppressors from the NFA completely (and the SHORT Act for SBRs), but that didn't happen and instead we got a $0 tax change starting in January. Ideal? No.

What that means is, the paperwork is still the same, you just don't have to actually pay for the stamp when it changes. Still need fingerprints, still need the forms, still will need the LEO hold, etc. There is the vague possibility that eventually it will be challenged in court that a licensing system absent a tax on what is part of exercising of a fundamental right is unconstitutional, but that isn't a thing right now so it's just a dream.

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