Claude AI just said something that blew my mind…
Quick backstory… one of the main features of my new project is songs are ranked using an algorithm that an intern (who is about to finish his masters at RIT) wrote. Basically it was slowly starting to not work. I was looking through his code and found a script that looked like running it would fix, but it actually broke that section and my top song leaderboards showed no songs!!! So I figured I had no choice but to try to tackle a feature I otherwise would have thought to complex to try with Claude. Not only did Claude fix it, it improved it. Wow!
So maybe I should just proceed with development and try to get to a place where a customer would pay before the next funding round. If it could do this, maybe the other features are not too complex for Claude, right?
I have moved out of prompts and into markdown files. For each project, I have a Product Request Document (Claude’s name, not mine) that is a markdown file. So I added a list of features that I thought would really put me over the edge. Really make this compelling for potential customers and investors. To put this in perspective, even trying to be concise and brief for Claude, I added almost 1,400 words to the PRD for these new features. One section of the PRD lists goals as to why I want to build these features. This is what I wrote for goals:
- create products we can monetize
- improve the user experience and stickiness of the application
- improve organic search and social visibility and traffic
- demonstrate to potential investors that this site is worthy of investment and can grow and improve.
Per usual, I told Claude to comment, make recommendations, give feedback, and ask clarifying questions. Claude’s response was lengthy, but this caught my eye, “if goal #4 is real, you need [various metrics] before a pitch. Don’t build this for the investor; build it for yourself.” What!?!? Don’t build this for the investor; build it for yourself!?!?! Instead of reading the goals and executing on instructions, Claude took the time to point out one of my goals, in his opinion (and yes I used his because after this response I think he just got promoted from its to his pronouns), my goal was too shallow and unworthy. Claude just called me out. Claude wants me to aim higher. Claude just went from a software developer to motivational coach. I have been thinking the hype that AI is self-aware is silly, but now…
