alt Hacker NewsWhat I've noticed is that whenever Claude says something like "the simplest fix is..." it's usually suggesting some horrible hack. And whenever I see that I go straight to the code it wants to write and challenge it.
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lol this one time Claude showed me two options for an implementation of a new feature on existing project, one JavaScript client side and the other Python server side.
I told it to implement the server side one, it said ok, I tabbed away for a while, came to find the js implementation, checking the log Claude said “on second thought I think I’ll do the client side version instead”.
Rarely do I throw an expletive bomb at Claude - this was one such time.
this prompt is actually in claude cli. it says something like implement simplest solution. dont over abstract. On my phone but I saw an article mention this in the leak analysis.
Yup. Every single time it's about to do the dumbest thing I've seen in my life.
That is the kind of thing that I've been fighting by being super explicit in CLAUDE.md. For whatever reason, instead of being much more thorough and making sure that files are being changed only after fully understanding the scope of the change (behaviour prior to Feb/Mar), Claude would just jump to the easiest fix now, with no backwards compatibility thinking and to hell with all existing tests. What is even worse is I've seen it try and edit files before even reading them on a couple of occasions, which is a big red flag. (/effort max)
Another thing that worked like magic prior to Feb/Mar was how likely Claude was to load a skill whenever it deduced that a skill might be useful. I personally use [superpowers][1] a lot, and I've noticed that I have to be very explicit when I want a specific skill to be used - to the point that I have to reference the skill by name.
[1]: https://github.com/obra/superpowers