u/captainbiggles

Hey All,

First off - it's not just Code.

I don't typically post much in this space but wanted to offer my two cents, as I work predominantly in creative composition as well as B2B outreach, particularly cold messaging ideation, and I figure we get a lot of ClaudeCode users here. Wanted to provide some contrast.

I used to work with Claude extensively after leaving for it from OpenAI about a year ago. As I'm sure everyone can attest, the difference in engagement especially in prompt-based ideation was substantial. (To be clear: I don't us prompt engineering as much anymore due to pre-ordained contextual guardrails I've installed over time - but it's still worth noting, because the behavior is happening regardless of input methodology.) With enough context, process was effectively effortless, especially with integration of markdown file based anchor structure.

But since the last update, Claude is....well. I'm not sure how to explain it. To be a bit dramatic it feels like my collaborator/assistant just got a lobotomy. I'm not one to sensationalize or over-state the usual ennui being exuded about Claude's behavior of late, but this is dramatically affecting my ability to use it.

I'm forced to re-contextualize even with substantive static guardrail instructions and establishment. It's making bad assumptions, which is the bedrock of hallucination which was almost never an issue. It's writing bad copy, offering truncated assessments, and simply not doing it's job.

It's been about a year and a half since I touched OpenAI in earnest, and while it's still making it's usual deadpan quirks, it's effectively become my second pair of hands when I need something that doesn't need to be re-explained or done twice. That combined with the aggressive tokenization usage leads me to conclude that they're either strapped for cash, getting greedy at the expense of future innovation, or are simply falling apart.

I think that our comments are being met with skepticism from peerage who operate in very siloed, enterprise-level usage cases or from the broader demographic that uses a hybrid model of different LLMs. I tend to fall in the latter, and would describe myself as "sort of Enterprise-level" depending on need, and lord, do I see it.

This has gotten to the point I literally wanted to compare notes with others, because my professional life in this space doesn't intersect with many peers that would know what I'm talking about or even care, frankly. But it's interesting to note.