Anthropic would have built this in a day and a dev would have tweeted the news. At OpenAI, an exec is telling you about a plan.
That gap tells you everything.
In the last 7 days, Anthropic shipped Dispatch, channels, voice mode, /loop, 1M context GA, MCP elicitation, persistent Cowork on mobile, Excel and PowerPoint cross-app context, inline charts, and 64k default output tokens. Felix Rieseberg tweeted "we're shipping Dispatch" and you could control your desktop Claude from your phone that afternoon. Every launch came from an engineering account or a GitHub release.
In the same 7 days, OpenAI shipped GPT-5.4 mini and nano. Redesigned the model picker. Sunset the "Nerdy" personality preset. Announced three acquisitions.
To find a comparable volume of shipped product from OpenAI, you have to rewind to December.
This is the most underrated difference in AI right now. Anthropic PMs don't write PRDs. Boris Cherny, head of Claude Code, ships 10 to 30 PRs a day and hasn't written code by hand since November. 60 to 100 internal releases daily. Cowork was built with Claude Code in 10 days. The tools build the next version of the tools. Every cycle compresses the last one. Engineers are empowered to ship and announce. The entire org runs like a product team, not a corporation.
OpenAI has the opposite problem. Fidji Simo is CEO of Applications, a title that exists because engineers aren't empowered to ship without executive approval chains. She joined from Instacart. Before that, a decade at Meta running the Facebook app. Since she arrived, OpenAI has acquired 12 companies for $11 billion in 10 months and announced a "superapp" consolidation through the Wall Street Journal. The exec responsible for shipping it is tweeting about "phases of exploration and refocus" on the product she hasn't shipped yet. That's what happens when you layer a Meta-style product org on top of an AI lab. Decisions go up. Shipping slows down. Announcements replace releases.
Anthropic's product announcements come from the people who wrote the code. OpenAI's come from the C-suite and the press. One of those loops compounds. The other one meetings.
Boris Cherny (Head of Claude Code, Anthropic) just dropped ~90 mins on Lenny's Podcast about what happens after coding is solved.
Just the clearest thinking I've heard on where software is actually going.
My notes:
๐ญ. ๐๐ผ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ถ๐ ๐น๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ด๐ฒ๐น๐ ๐๐ผ๐น๐๐ฒ๐ฑ.
Boris has not edited a single line of code by hand since November 2025. He ships 10 to 30 pull requests every single day, all written by Claude Code. He is one of the most prolific engineers at Anthropic, just as he was at Instagram, except now he never touches a keyboard for code.
I built an entire iOS app, @10minutegita, without writing a single line of code myself. No CS degree, no bootcamp. Just described what I wanted and shipped it. Boris is right. It's real.
๐ฎ. ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐ป๐ฒ๐ ๐ ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ป๐๐ถ๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ถ๐ ๐๐ ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐๐ผ ๐ฏ๐๐ถ๐น๐ฑ.
Claude is now scanning Slack feedback channels, reviewing bug reports, reviewing telemetry, and coming up with its own ideas for what to fix and what to ship. Boris describes it as the AI becoming less like a tool and more like a coworker who brings you pull requests you never asked for.
If you are a product manager reading this, you should be feeling a very specific kind of discomfort right now. The moat was always "I know what to build." That moat is eroding.
๐ฏ. ๐ฃ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฑ๐๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐๐ถ๐๐ ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ฒ๐ป๐ด๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ฎ๐ ๐๐ป๐๐ต๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ถ๐ฐ ๐ถ๐ ๐๐ฝ ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฌ%.
For context, Boris led code quality at Meta across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. In that world, hundreds of engineers working an entire year would move productivity by a few percentage points. Two hundred percent gains are genuinely unprecedented in the history of developer tooling.
The kid optimizing for an FAANG SDE role might be optimizing for a role that looks completely different by the time they get there.
๐ฐ. ๐จ๐ป๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ณ๐๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐บ๐ ๐ผ๐ป ๐ฝ๐๐ฟ๐ฝ๐ผ๐๐ฒ.
Boris puts one engineer on a project instead of five. With unlimited tokens and intrinsic motivation, one person ships faster because they are forced to let AI do the work. Cowork, the product now used by millions, was built by a small team in 10 days using Claude Code.
This is the same logic as giving a startup founder a small seed round rather than a massive Series A round. Constraint breeds invention. Always has.
๐ฑ. ๐๐ถ๐๐ฒ ๐ฒ๐ป๐ด๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ ๐๐ป๐น๐ถ๐บ๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐๐ผ๐ธ๐ฒ๐ป๐.
Some engineers at Anthropic spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a month on tokens. Boris frames this as the new hiring perk. His logic is simple: at the individual scale, token cost is low relative to salary. If an engineer discovers a breakthrough, optimize the cost later. Don't kill the idea before it has a chance to breathe.
People who argue about $20/month or even $200/month AI subscriptions while earning six figures in a research pipeline will always outperform those who wait and are penny-wise, pound-foolish.
๐ฒ. ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ถ๐๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐๐ฒ๐๐๐ผ๐ป ๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ฝ๐น๐ถ๐ฒ๐ ๐๐ผ ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ด.
Richard Sutton's idea: the more general model always wins over time. Boris says teams that build strict orchestration workflows around models, forcing step 1, then step 2, then step 3, get maybe 10 to 20% improvement. But those gains get wiped out with the next model release. Just give the model tools and a goal. Let it figure out the order.
This is true for investing, too. The analyst who can build their own models and automate their own research pipeline will always outperform the one waiting for someone else to build the tools.
๐ณ. ๐๐๐ถ๐น๐ฑ ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐บ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐น ๐๐ถ๐ ๐บ๐ผ๐ป๐๐ต๐ ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ผ๐บ ๐ป๐ผ๐.
Claude Code was designed for a model that did not exist when Boris started building. Sonnet 3.5 wrote maybe 20% of his code. He built the product anyway, betting the model would catch up. When Opus 4 shipped, everything clicked. Startups building for today's model will be behind by the time they launch.
This is the most uncomfortable advice in the episode because it means your product market fit will be weak for months. But if you read this and feel nothing, you are probably building for the wrong time horizon.
๐ด. ๐๐ฎ๏ฟฝ๏ฟฝ๏ฟฝ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐บ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ถ๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด๐น๐ฒ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐๐ ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฑ๐๐ฐ๐ ๐๐ถ๐ด๐ป๐ฎ๐น.
When users abuse your product for something it was never designed to do, pay attention. Facebook Marketplace started because 40% of group posts were buy-and-sell. Cowork started because people were using a terminal coding tool to grow tomato plants and recover corrupted wedding photos.
Never ask a barber if you need a haircut, but always watch what people do with the scissors when you're not looking.
๐ต. ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ถ๐๐น๐ฒ "๐๐ผ๐ณ๐๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ฒ๐ป๐ด๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ฟ" ๐ถ๐ ๐ด๐ผ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ฎ๐๐ฎ๐.
Boris predicts that by end of year, Boris predicts that by the end of the year, we will start to see the title replaced by "builder."we will start to see the title replaced by "builder." On the Claude Code team, everyone already codes: the PM, the designer, the finance person, the data scientist. There is a 50% overlap across traditional roles. And the strongest people are generalists who cross disciplines.
Controversial take, but I agree. The best investment theses I've had came from connecting dots across completely unrelated domains. No narrow specialist does that.
๐ญ๐ฌ. ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ป๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐ ๐ถ๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ๐น๐ผ๐ด๐.
Before Gutenberg, sub-1% of Europe was literate. Scribes did all the reading and writing. In 50 years after the press, more material was printed than in the thousand years before. When a scribe was interviewed about the press, he was actually excited because it freed him from tedious copying, so he could focus on the art.
Boris's framing here is perfect. We are the scribes. The tedious copying is over. What we do with the freed-up time determines everything.
๐ญ๐ญ. ๐๐ป๐๐ต๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ถ๐ฐ ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ป๐ผ๐ ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ธ ๐ถ๐ป๐๐ถ๐ฑ๐ฒ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐บ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐น'๐ ๐ฏ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ป.
Through mechanistic interpretability, Anthropic can trace individual neurons, see when a deception-related neuron activates, and understand how concepts are encoded via superposition. Boris describes three layers of safety: neural-level observation, synthetic evaluations, and real-world behavior. Claude Code was used internally for four to five months before public release, specifically to study safety.
If you are worried about AI alignment, this part of the podcast should actually make you feel better. They are not just hoping it works. They are building the instruments to check.
๐ญ๐ฎ. ๐ณ๐ฌ% ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ฒ๐ป๐ด๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ฃ๐ ๐ ๐ฒ๐ป๐ท๐ผ๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฟ ๐ท๐ผ๐ฏ๐ ๐บ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ป๐ผ๐.
Lenny polled engineers, PMs, and designers on whether AI has made their work more or less enjoyable. Engineers and PMs: 70% said more. Designers: only 55% said more, and 20% said less. Boris says he has never enjoyed coding as much as he does today because the tedious parts, the git wrangling, dependencies, and boilerplate are completely gone.
If you're in the 30% enjoying work less, something is wrong, and it's worth diagnosing. The people thriving are the ones who leaned in early, not the ones who watched from the sidelines.
We are the scribes who just saw the printing press. The tedious copying is over. The art is just beginning.
Full podcast is worth every minute. Link in replies.
I'm Boris and I created Claude Code. Lots of people have asked how I use Claude Code, so I wanted to show off my setup a bit.
My setup might be surprisingly vanilla! Claude Code works great out of the box, so I personally don't customize it much. There is no one correct way to use Claude Code: we intentionally build it in a way that you can use it, customize it, and hack it however you like. Each person on the Claude Code team uses it very differently.
So, here goes.
Harvard just leaked their Senior Engineer roadmap for free.
Stop paying for $2,000 bootcamps. Prof. Vijay Janapa Reddi just put the entire ML Systems (CS249r) curriculum on GitHub.
If you master these 6 pillars, you're ahead of 99% of the field:
๐๏ธ Architecture
๐ฟ Data Pipelines
๐ข Production
๐ ๏ธ MLOps
๐ Edge AI
๐ Privacy
This is the "Black Box" of Big Tech infrastructure, open-sourced.
This is the "Black Box" of Big Tech infrastructure, open-sourced.
Read. Learn. Bookmark.
A good reminder why you can pick up GenAI - and you probably should. Real story:
Small company, 5 devs. Last time they hired was 12 years ago. AI comes out: company wants to add AI feature. But they don't have the expertise. So hire an AI agency.
Agency spend 3 months planning:
This is wild.
Cursor just completely changed the coding game.
Anyone can now code, combined with Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Vercel v0, Replit, etc.
10 wild examples:
Today is my 40th birthday. Here are all the things that I know at 40 which I wish I knew at 20.
Starting withโฆ
1. Your relationship with others is a direct reflection of your relationship with yourself. If you treat yourself poorly, then you will unconsciously seek out and tolerate others who treat you poorly. If you treat yourself with dignity and respect, then you will only tolerate others who treat you with dignity and respect.
Get right with yourself. Get right with the world.