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Last week, Boris Cherny, the creator and head of Anthropic’s popular Claude Code programming agent, posted ​a thread on X​ about how he personally used the AI tool in his own work. It created a stir. “What began as a casual sharing of his personal terminal setup has spiraled into a viral manifesto on the future of software development,” explained a ​ _VentureBeat_ article​ about the incident. As Cherny explained, he runs five different instances of the coding agent at the same time, each in its own tab in his terminal: ‘While one agent runs a test suite, another refactors a legacy module, and a third drafts documentation.’ He cycles rapidly through these tabs, providing further instruction or gentle prods to each agent as needed, checking their work, and sending them back to improve their output. One user, responding to the thread, ​described the approach​ like playing the famously fast-paced video game Starcraft. The _VentureBeat_ article described Cherny as operating like a “fleet commander.” It all seemed like a lot of fun. But here’s the thing: If I were a software developer, I would be wary of any such demonstration. In his 1974 book, ​ _Labor and Monopoly Capital_ ​, the influential Marxist political economist Harry Braverman argued that the expanding “science-technical revolution” was being exploited by companies to increasingly “deskill” workers; to leave them in “ignorance, incapacity, and thus in fitness for machine servitude.” The more employees outsource skilled activity to machines, the more controllable they become. It’s hard not to hear echoes of Braverman’s deskilling argument in something like Cherny’s AI programming demo. A world in which software development is reduced to the ersatz management of energetic but messy digital agents is a world in which a once important economic sector is stripped down to fewer, more poorly paid jobs, as wrangling agents requires much less skill than producing elegant code from scratch. The consumer would fare no better, as the resulting software would be less stable and innovation would slow. The only group that would unambiguously benefit from deskilling developers would be the technology companies themselves, which could minimize one of their biggest expenses: their employees. Boris Cherny is a senior technical lead at Anthropic who manages a large team and likely owns a significant amount of stock options in the company. Of course, _he’s_ excited about the idea of agents replacing programmers, but that doesn’t mean we have to share his enthusiasm. — P.S., I don’t mean to deny the value of AI tools for programmers. I’ve talked to many developers who have found great utility in using AI to help (​apparently​) speed up programming tasks. What makes me suspicious is the claim that shifting to a world in which you just assign agents work is somehow just the natural next step in programming productivity. It might seem cool in the moment, but something more profound and dark might be lurking beneath these gee-whiz demos.

It's true—a carefully chosen book can actually change your life. Here, the top 9 books I most love for parents, 20somethings, and students ages 12 and up.

It's true—a carefully chosen book can actually change your life. Here, the top 9 books I most love for parents, 20somethings, and students ages 12 and up.

It's true—a carefully chosen book can actually change your life. Here, the top 9 books I most love for parents, 20somethings, and students ages 12 and up.

The Weirdo in the Woods I took this picture last week. While most people enter the woods with a hiking stick, or perhaps a dog, ... Read more

Your ability to focus isn't broken. It's under attack. In a world of endless notifications and constant distractions, the person who can concentrate is the one with the superpower. This is your guide to getting that power back. In this episode, we're diving deep into Cal Newport's revolutionary concept of "Deep Work." You'll learn why your ability to focus is a muscle, not a gift, and we'll give you the five essential exercises to build your "focus muscle" into an unbreakable force. We'll explore the four distinct deep work styles—from the "monastic" to the "journalistic"—to help you find the perfect fit for your life. This isn't just theory; it's a tactical playbook. We're unpacking eleven practical strategies to engineer your life for peak productivity and unlock that elusive flow state where you do your best work and feel your best. Stick with us to the very end to learn about the simple, five-minute "shutdown ritual" that will allow you to truly unplug from work and reclaim your evenings forever. It's time to stop being a victim of distraction and start becoming the architect of your attention. Subscribe, share this with your most distracted friend, and let's get to work.

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