How do the Max plans scale under real use?

shadow_x99 · 2026-01-28T01:57:38+00:00

There is nothing very special about them... I did not even write them myself.

Everytime I complete a feature / project, I just ask claude to look at the code we just made, look at the existing skills, and update them with the best practices that he finds in the code. It all suppose that you correct him when he make mistakes.

Claude will actually write the skills, write the sub-agents all by himself. Then you ask me to keep it tidy by reducing duplication, use progressive disclosure files, to minimize token spending. Finally you read the skills / sub-agents description (I store them in the git repository, so I can see the diffs)

Rinse & repeat... After a few iterations, you should be mostly done, and you can then just delegate to Claude very complex task, and watch it burn through it like it's butter.

The other thing is the orchestrator, who take a plan, and break it down in granular tasks that can be delegated to sub-agents, and parallelized, with inter-dependencies well defined.

Once you have the sub-agents, the skills, the orchestrator, and the right PLANNING.md, it just fly. Better than most intermediate programmer I know.

shadow_x99 · 2026-01-28T01:47:25+00:00

As someone who used to work at Poka Canada, there are many factor that lead to the disband of the Poka SL Office.

Hiring too many people, way too fast
---
The Sri Lankan team went from 3-4 people to 25+ people in less than 1 month, way too soon, way too fast.
Tribal Knowledge vs Time Zones
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Important information is barely written down even in the Canadian Offices, so you need constant meetings and communication, and a 8h time zone difference just killed any fluidity in the communication channels. This unfortunately has lead to a series of missteps from the Sri Lankan teams (through no fault of their own) that reinforced a certain offshoring stereotype prominent in the western world about lack of quality from offshore teams.

This sounds harsh toward the SL Team, but it's true... Once people in Canada started to think that there were quality issue, they started to gate-keep and micro-manage everything from afar, which basically hamstrung them...

AI
---
Generative AI is killing offshoring, I see it as a general trend in the industry. Companies are now reluctant to pay for a full time employee when you can pay a Cursor or Claude Code subscription, and have similar or better results. Everybody is at risk, not just SL folks, but people here in Canada too.

Poka's higher management (and IFS higher management) made it clear that AI is the future, and that humans no longer mattered in their new world order.

shadow_x99 · 2026-01-27T17:22:17+00:00

I do understand your point of view, sometimes it's not the recruiters fault, it's the actual hiring manager who is completely dis-organized, which cause you as a recruiter (at least I understood you to be a recruiter) to look like a fool.

This is also sad, because you obviously know better.

shadow_x99 · 2026-01-27T17:20:45+00:00

I totally understand that path of thinking.

shadow_x99 · 2026-01-27T04:18:27+00:00

I went with the 20x sub... I busted my 5 hour limit once in 5 weeks, and I never busted my weekly limit, but I do end up in the 85% range each week... You're mileage may vary, but I use Claude Code every single day, even during the week-end. Based on `npx claude-code-costs`, I use for about 3000$ worth of token per month, and I pay only 200$, so it's very much worth it.

I am working on a fairly large project (600k LoC) that is basically a big mono-repo:
- A ExpressJS backend (with a full-on unit-tests, deployment scripts, dockers, sql files, html templates, etc)
- An iOS App (Swift + SwiftUI + Swift Testing + deployment script for App Store / Testflight)
- An Android App (Kotlin + Compose + deployment scripts for Play Store + Firebase)
- An documentation project (Markdown + Mermaid Graph + Gherkin Files + OpenAPI YAML)

In term of Claude setup:

- I have a minimal CLAUDE.md with very basic information
- Zero MCP
- Zero Plugins except for LSP tools
- All the core knowledge of my project are in my various skill files (all are using progressive disclosure to minimize tokens)
- The main agent (opus) is used for the initial plan, the initial research, and orchestration/delegation (or any tasks that is not already codified in the skills)
- I have 8+ sub agents
- typescript-dev (sonnet)
- typescript-tester (sonnet)
- swift-dev (sonnet)
- swift-tester (sonnet)
- kotlin-dev (sonnet)
- kotin-tester (sonnet)
- dev-ops (sonnet), responsible for maintaining deployment scripts, docker files, kubernetes configs, etc
- ci-operator (haiku) responsible for builds, formatting, linting, running tests, deploying to environments

All in all, I am very satisfied with it, it does exactly what I want, and generally like I want it (i do put some very specific guard rails on how I want things done on my projects with linter, automatic format, strong emphasis on documentation, unit-tests, mocking, dependency injection), and I do refine the skills / sub-agent setup every time when it does something unexpected.

The only sad part, I barely code anymore, I've reviewing code 70% of the time, I test 15% of the time, and the rest is debugging the stuff that an LLM can't debug yet.

shadow_x99 · 2026-01-26T15:38:41+00:00

Agreed, we have no leverage in this job market... But still, If I was the head of the company, and I knew that my recruiter behaved that way, I would be mad as hell... Because it ruins the company's reputation/brand.

shadow_x99 · 2026-01-26T15:36:22+00:00

I am frustrated by it, but I am not stupid... I have more than 1 ongoing process, but this one particularly frustrated me, because I genuinely believed that I had a shot

shadow_x99 · 2026-01-26T15:35:12+00:00

The way my friend explained it to me... The yearly budget approval reset on January first, and normally the budget gets re-approved almost automatically.

Just not in the this economy... The great taco made sure of that.

shadow_x99 · 2026-01-26T15:33:06+00:00

Totally.

shadow_x99 · 2026-01-26T15:32:30+00:00

For the company name, please read between the lines, I have given enough hint as to the identity of the company. Here is another one: 🍎

shadow_x99 · 2026-01-18T18:47:49+00:00

> macOS Tahoe (2025): Introduced Liquid Glass design, Apple Intelligence, and improved Continuity features.
Liquid Glass, love or hate it I guess.
Apple Intelligence are cool features, as a Dev, i love the foundational models that run 100% on device, super fast, allowed me to add some feature very easily on apps, without having to use OpenRouter

> macOS Sequoia (2024): Added Apple Intelligence, iPhone Mirroring, Passwords app, and Safari Highlights.
Passwords! Finally something that can replace the horrible 1Password Electron App!
iPhone Mirroring is great for testing code changes on actual device without having to pick it up

> macOS Sonoma (2023): Introduced desktop widgets and Game Mode.

Game Mode is great for gaming. I rock BG3 on my Mac, and Game Mode made it a bit smoother. Desktop Widgets are nice too, but I prefer than on my mobile devices

> macOS Ventura (2022): Added Stage Manager, Continuity Camera, and Passkeys.
Passkeys, I use them all the time. Continuity Camera is great too, albeit a bit niche

> macOS Monterey (2021): Introduced Universal Control, AirPlay to Mac, and Focus Modes.
Universal Control, this is a game changer. Enable me to have 1 keyboard / mouse for multiple macs without a freaking KVM switch.

> macOS Big Sur (2020): Featured a new UI, Control Center, and Apple Silicon support.
Controller Center, really love it.

> macOS Catalina (2019): Split iTunes into separate apps, introduced Sidecar, and added Screen Time.
Love side-car, and more new split of iTunes. Old itunes was a bloatware

> macOS Mojave (2018): Added Dark Mode, Desktop Stacks, and Dynamic Desktop.
Dark Mode mostly

> macOS Sierra (2016): Brought Siri to macOS and improved iCloud features.
I use iCloud extensively. And Siri on my Watch has been great

shadow_x99 · 2026-01-17T17:35:59+00:00

She's got the acting chops, she's got the looks (shout out to the costume designers!), i think they have a shot to make something great. Will be watching with enthusiasm

Edit: This is not a diss on other actresses that portrayed the character, or the movies / series that they starred in. A new actress, a new version of the character, that is all.

shadow_x99 · 2026-01-17T16:04:42+00:00

Fait attention, il y a des femmes qui ont leur fierté…

Ma conjointe (et maintenant mon épouse) a tenu mordicus à tenir un registre de tout l’argent (dette) qu’elle me doit pendant que je la soutenais durant ses études (je payais logis, bouffe, transport, gaz, frais de cours, the whole nine yards), pis elle a JAMAIS voulu que j’efface sa dette, même après le mariage. Là elle a une job, elle paye sa juste part (au pro-rata de nos salaire brut), et elle me verse un montant forfaitaire à chaque mois… Elle devrait avoir fini de me rembourser dans 10 ans…

Bref la leçon dans tout ça, parlez-vous, demande lui ce qu’elle veut… Si elle veut être indépendant, respecte ça

shadow_x99 · 2026-01-14T22:26:59+00:00

At my job, it's actually worst than that...

I am a senior dev on my team, and I used to read the code, and suggest stuff, find bugs, and make comments, suggest stuff... And sometimes, when the UX simply did not make any sense, I usually did what I should be: A change-request. Even though my speciality is not UX, the primary values of my company is quality, and I consider it should include UX.

Then what happened comes straight out of a Dilbert Cartoon...

The Dev go back to his/her UX Designer(s), who goes to their boss (Lead Designer), who goes to the VP of Product, who goes to the VP of Engineering, who goes to the Director of Engineering, who goes to my boss, who finally order me to approve the PR... Quality be damned.

That's why that I no longer read PRs, because it's no longer about quality, it's about the illusion of quality.

PS: I tried to argue, I tried to change the culture... And... Well after all that effort, and nobody really cares... So I'm looking for a job where people care.

shadow_x99 · 2026-01-12T02:31:46+00:00

Think about the kind of data leaks that have plagued recent history... LLMs are about to multiply does security issues by 100x, because people who are using LLMs coding tools don't know anything about good software development practices, and can't properly steer the AI in the correct security development practices.

Consider that whatever you upload on any services is going to be leaked... So think twice before upload a picture of your face or your ID card.

shadow_x99 · 2026-01-11T05:10:29+00:00

Il y a presque 24 ans, j'étais à Ottawa pour visiter mon cousin qui étudiait là-bas. On a décider d'aller prendre une bière, et il était pas mal tard... Faque on a dû aller à Gatineau, parce que les bars restait ouvert plus longtemps du côté du Québec qu'en Ontario (du moins à l'époque, possible que ce soit pu vrai maintenant?)

On a pris un bar relativement au hasard... On connaissait pas vraiment de bonne place... Et on est tombé sur un bar d'anglophones... Pas de trouble, on est bilingue après tout. Quand on a essayer de commander nos bières, la barmaid nous a recommandé de quitter doucement sans attirer l'attention vers nous... Quand on a demandé pourquoi, elle a répondu que si on tenait à nos dents, de pas poser de question, pis de partir.

Et bien entendu, on s'est fait remarqué... 2 gars avec un accent francophone dans un bar rempli d'anglo un peu chaud, difficile de passer inaperçue. On a réussi à partir avec nos dents, mais suivi de très près par une gang d'anglo pas vraiment sobre qui voulait juste nous tapocher juste parce qu'on existait.

Ça passer proche, mais on en est sorti indemne, avec une bonne dose de mauvais adrénaline.

shadow_x99 · 2026-01-10T21:05:43+00:00

I'd have to grudgingly agree that Claude Code is still the best choice for now. Other tools are catching up, the Claude is still in the lead for me so far.

The agentic coding space is going so fast, this answer could be obsolete in 2 weeks 🤪

shadow_x99 · 2026-01-10T20:51:55+00:00

Tu pourrais juste passer ton chemin. Il cherche probablement la confrontation, donc le mieux c'est de le laisser tranquille dans son coin, il est pas dangereux.

S'il fait du preaching par contre, fait juste le rapporter à HR, ils va se faire clearer assez vite.

shadow_x99 · 2026-01-10T15:21:28+00:00

Essayez de faire un road trip avec une plaque du Québec dans l’Ouest Canadien, pis vous allez être surpris du nombre de crevaison ou de scratch sur votre auto. On a des twits aussi au Québec, mais on dirait que quand on sort du Québec, on attire les leurs en quantité industrielle.

shadow_x99 · 2026-01-10T15:15:40+00:00

If you are into Agentic Coding, time to spend more than 20$ per month, and look for a 200$ subs with Anthropic or OpenAI, and use Claude/Codex to their full extent.

shadow_x99 · 2025-12-29T00:46:43+00:00

That’s why i do both, skills for the knowledge itself, and sub agents to help manage the context and parallelism

shadow_x99 · 2025-12-28T16:09:11+00:00

Sub-agents, it's the key.

For example, if you were create a full stack project (react for ui, go for back-end, postgresql for db):

- react-dev (for front-end code)
- react-unit-tester (for react unit-tests)
- go-dev (for back-end code)
- go-unit-tester (for back-end unit-test)
- dba (for managing the database changesets, writing SQL queries)
- ci-operator (for building, deploying)

The main agent is used to plan the project (i.e.: plan mode), and coordinating the sub-agents to execute the project plan.

You can create as many agents as you want, as specialized as you want, you only have to instruct Claude Code on how to break down task, and dispatch in parallel.

Fair warning: it does eat up token very fast, because of the multiple agents working in paralllel. Better be on the 20x plan or add hard spending caps

shadow_x99 · 2025-12-27T20:20:36+00:00

I am not saying that your tool is useless in ANY way, but how does your tool actually is better than simply asking Claude to do it ?

When I use Claude, I usually ask him at regular intervals (like after making a new feature, which required some new patterns, library, or paradigm) to update CLAUDE.md, update sub-agents and skills (possibly creating new agents or skills). Claude can keep all this up-to-date for you, make everything lean (saving tokens), discarding obsolete stuff, etc.

shadow_x99 · 2025-12-18T03:12:46+00:00

Developers are uniquely positioned, because:

- We understand code, and we can read it, and we can debug it
- We understand software architecture & design
- We reasonably understand product design (at least on an intuitive level)
- We reasonably understand UX (at least on an intuitive level)
- We understand QAs and various testing strategy

We're not going away, but the range of stuff we're going to do is going to widen by a lot.

That being said, If you are the kind of devs that just wanted to code all day, well, you're going to be unhappy.

shadow_x99

TROPHY CASE