If I learned how to code, surely I can learn how to navigate the world that's preventing me from coding.

Oh reader how I have missed you! How have you been? Did you watch the finale of that show you and I are definitely into?? I KNOW RIGHT! I didn’t see it coming either! Anyway, what else should we talk about?The richest man’s app making nonconsensual images? Federal agents killing people in the name of safety? Whatever the fuck justified this insanity? We could talk about all those things, but let’s save that for a different time.

Let’s talk about how I just can’t make the right decision. I spent six months of my life taking a web development bootcamp to just realize that ChatGPT could do everything the class was trying to teach me. How do I know this? Cause ChatGPT absolutely did every one of my assignments. Ever the optimist, I thought this is how I would change careers and do something I actually enjoyed. Sadly reader, I was wrong.

Fast forward a year since I passed that bootcamp (highest grade in the class, don’t play with me reader), I still like messing with making some websites. Besides having a serious case of writers block (it’s in the I have the idea locked down just need to translate it into words) and being a degenerate rat playing Arc Raiders, I’ve been working on a new website. No I’m not going to tell you what it is! Everything isn’t about you reader, sheesh.

But since I never really learned to make websites, I tend to rely on the flavor of the week chatbot to get my objectives complete. I got access to Github Copilot through my bootcamp which lets me try out a bunch of the models. I’ve been favoring Anthropic’s Claude model to get my work done. I was working SO MUCH, and SO HARD, on said website that I ran out of tokens to use. That led me to trying out the latest AI tool everyone was raging about: Claude Code. Instead of chatting through a textbox, you install a tool that you tell what to do via a terminal window. It looks like this:

Claude Code

In the name of science, I put $25 into my Claude account and got an API token to try it out. Of you course you still type like you would a chatbot. What makes it cool is that it uses multiple models simultaneously to complete what you want. It does it very well from my testing. Should it cause $285 billion dollars worth of stock value to crash? Apparently. The fear from investors seems to be this: why pay for a software tool when you can use Claude Code to make the same tool but tailor it EXACTLY for your needs. I kind of see that. I’ve read so many examples of people using it to make hyper specific things.

Besides the website I am working (seriously, I’m not going to tell you what it is, stop asking), I wanted to try to make a hyper specific tool for myself. Let me tell you about the psychotic way I decide to buy a video game. First thing I do is check IsThereAnyDeal because I’m cheap as fuck and if I don’t have to pay full price I absolutely won’t. After I get a price, I then want to see the average play time to beat the game (cost to time ratio, I need justify the money spent). I use HowLongToBeat for that. But what if it’s a multiplayer game? Time to beat won’t matter. How many players are actively playing, that’s what matters! Well I use SteamDB to get that information. And even though I don’t own a Steam Deck anymore, I still like to see if the game will run on Linux (what if I get another Steam Deck!?), so I check ProtonDB to see what rating it has. There’s something wrong with me that I go through all this to just buy a video game.

As if all that nonsense wasn’t specific enough, I also wanted it to be accessible via a Discord bot so I can just ping it whenever I’m online. Well, after walking me through all the API keys I had to get, telling me how to host it on my Raspberry Pi (cause I ain’t paying to host my damn bot), and walking me through how to create a Discord bot, it did it:

Arc Raiders results from my bot

Since that worked so easily, what else could I make this bot do? Remember the part where I said “because I’m cheap as fuck”? Could I make it check which games are currently 100% discounted on the markets I get my games from? Without a problem:

Current free games for me to grab

I did that all in a shorter span than it took me to write this post. It was seriously impressive and you can test it out right now in my Discord server. I’m not going to invite you to my Discord server…but if you were there you could try it! Sucks to suck, I know. But it brings me back to how I can’t make the right decision. I wanted to pivot into a new career at the exact moment where investors, and by extensions the employers themselves, don’t think its worth training new learners when a $20 monthly subscription can do it better.

It’s not just coding though. Anthropic has also released Claude Cowork. The fear was chatbots were going to replace humans. First replace the software you pay for. Then tailor the custom software to replace the entry level jobs. Insert Step 3. Then infinite profit? As always, a new model will just be better than the last. Anthropic just releasedOpus 4.6. OpenAI doesn’t like anyone else’s AI getting any buzz over itself, it’s also in the coding game. Expect a work mode soon.

Don’t forget about Google. They showed off a way to create “infinite, interactive worlds” with what they are calling Project Genie. Just like investors got worried after Claude Code, investors got worried about video game companies it seems.

I guess I just have to try make a better life decision next time. Maybe I should become a full-time predictions market trader. Maybe I can “predict” the most searched Google terms. Perhaps I can “predict” when a foreign country’s president will be removed. Surely I can’t make another bad decision, right?

things i read

A vintage watch broke auction records. Then the rumours started| Emma Irving for www.economist.com

She Was Given Up by Her Chinese Parents—and Spent 14 Years Trying to Find a Way Back | Olivia Cheng for www.wired.com

I Replaced My Friends With AI Because They Won't Play Tarkov With Me | Matthew Gault for www.404media.co

He Leaked the Secrets of a Southeast Asian Scam Compound. Then He Had to Get Out Alive | Andy Greenberg for www.wired.com

Betting on Prediction Markets Is Their Job. They Make Millions.| Benjamin Wallace for www.nytimes.com

Death of an Indian tech worker | Parth MN for restofworld.org

Everyone is stealing TV | Janko Roettgers for www.theverge.com

Do you have the a better idea of where to pivot my career? Let me know at blog@lattepunk.com.