Or the more tired “One week with Claude Code”-type article. It’s no secret that I’ve been grumpy about the new AI-based coding trend. I’ve been grumpy about the “push from above to use AI or else”. I’ve been grumpy about the eye-rolling hype I see on LinkedIn. I’ve been grumpy about being on the receiving end of vibe-coded PRs that over-engineer solutions to simple problems. I’ve been grumpy about the thought that we are about to see an amount of bloat like we have never imagined before. But, at the same time, I’ve been using LLMs to review my articles, to perform deep research, to generate cover pictures, and before last week, I had even dipped my toes into AI-based coding agents to help me with boring, repetitive tasks. And you know what? I see their promise of increased productivity, yet the amounts of slop I’ve witnessed make me skeptical and I have had little experience with coding agents myself to judge their promised usefulness. So… surprise! Last weekend I decided to start a Claude Code subscription and, after spending a week on it, I am uncomfortably excited to use it more. How has this happened? Let’s take a look at how I ended here, the kinds of mini-projects I worked on throughout this past week, and the (semi-expected) downsides I encountered.