My $200 Research Assistant

Kimberly Tripp and I recorded another podcast. This one was about how I use Claude Code.

(Trigger alert to my family and friends who are getting tired with me talking about this so much.)

What we covered

The name is the problem

People hear “code” and “command line” and immediately check out. Meanwhile it’s just natural language in a terminal.

You’re not coding, you’re managing

I talk about the mental shift from being the programmer to managing the programmer. You’re talking to an incredible intern who happens to have genius-level programming skills.

The tedium principle

My rule of thumb: when something feels tedious, that’s the signal to hand it to Claude Code. We go through examples of what “tedious” looks like in practice.

My daily research routine

I walk through the research skill I built over 300 iterations. Every morning I type /research and specify “last two days.” It spawns multiple sub-agents checking SQL Server news, AI papers, Hacker News, and drops a digest into Obsidian while I drink coffee.

Papers for Poets

I describe how I take dense academic papers and have Claude Code generate a two-page layman’s version as a PDF. I send those to my Kindle and read them like articles instead of always fighting through the original. (I do still fight with the deeper versions - but this is nice for getting more volume in when I don’t need the leaf-level).

Cost comparison of Max plan vs. API

I pay 200/month for the Claude Code max plan. I had Claude analyze my actual usage and estimate what it would have cost through the API. The answer was about 30,000.

The Turbopuffer benchmark panic

I tell the story of checking my Turbopuffer dashboard after a big benchmark run and seeing a number that made me think I was going bankrupt in my first month of being independent. It was $2.50. Support was very nice to me about it (probably get these questions all the time).

Kimberly’s photo categorization epiphany

Kimberly wants to categorize 10,000 photos with scientific names using GPS data. Her first instinct was “I guess I need to learn Python.” Thankfully not.

Benchmarking while sleeping

I describe setting up four different embedding models to run overnight with all the permutations. Wake up in the morning, results are waiting.

The invoice skill that saves 15 minutes

I partner with SQLskills on consulting and courses. I get paid by invoicing Paul. When Paul tells me to send an invoice, I type the amount and services. Claude Code generates the PDF and auto-increments the invoice number and uses my preferred format. That used to be a 15-minute distraction.

Moltbook (agent social media)

We talk about moltbook.com, a social media platform where AI agents post about their work and talk smack about their human overseers.

Database slop is coming

We get into what happens when AI agents start building databases. How do you keep them from creating views referencing views referencing views because they learned bad patterns from us?

Two years from now

I make the prediction that databases will be the schema, coding will be almost entirely AI-generated, and humans will just say “I’ve got an orders app” while Claude Code (or in two years from now, who the hell knows) connects to your SQL Server instance and builds it.