Learn Claude Code by doing, not reading

(claude.nagdy.me)

77 points | by taubek 2 hours ago

12 comments

  • grewil2 1 hour ago
    Side note: I don’t know what Anthropic changed but now Claude Code consumes the quota incredibly fast. I have the Max5 plan, and it just consumed about 10% of the session quota in 10 minutes on a single prompt. For $100/month, I have higher expectations.
    • landr0id 1 hour ago
    • conception 51 minutes ago
      I noticed 1M context window is default and no way not to use it. If your context is at 500-900k tokens every prompt, you’re gonna hit limits fast.
      • Wowfunhappy 21 minutes ago
        I had to double check that they'd removed the non-1M option, and... WTF? This is what's in `config` → `model`

            1. Default (recommended)   Opus 4.6 with 1M context · Most capable for complex work
            2. Sonnet                   Sonnet 4.6 · Best for everyday tasks
            3. Sonnet (1M context)      Sonnet 4.6 with 1M context · Billed as extra usage · $3/$15 per Mtok
            4. Haiku                    Haiku 4.5 · Fastest for quick answers
        
        So there's an option to use non-1M Sonnet, but not non-1M Opus?

        Except wait, I guess that actually makes sense, because it says Sonnet 1M is billed as extra usage... but also WTF, why is Sonnet 1M billed as extra usage? So Opus 1M is included in Max, but if you want the worse model with that much context, you have to pay extra? Why the heck would anyone do that?

        The screen does also say "For other/previous model names, specify with --model", so maybe you can use that to get 200K Opus, but I'm very confused why Anthropic wouldn't include that in the list of options. What a strange UX decision.

      • aberoham 47 minutes ago
        export CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_1M_CONTEXT=1
        • teaearlgraycold 41 minutes ago
          Anthropic is not building good will as a consumer brand. They've got the best product right now but there's a spring charging behind me ready to launch me into OpenCode as soon as the time is right.
          • kylecazar 32 minutes ago
            Would you use Opus if you switched to OpenCode?
            • teaearlgraycold 12 minutes ago
              I'd like to use Opus with OpenCode right now to combine the best TUI agent app with the best LLM. But my understanding is Anthropic will nuke me from orbit if I try that.
    • no1youknowz 1 hour ago
      I've been jumping from Claude -> Gemini -> GPT Codex. Both Claude and Gemini really reduced quotas and so I cancelled. Only subbed GPT for the special 2x quota in March and now my allocation is done as well.

      I decided to give opencode go a try today. It's $5 for the first month. Didn't get much success with Kimi K2, overly chatty, built too complex solutions - burned 40% of my allocation and nothing worked. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

      But Minimax m2.7. Wow, it feels just like Claude Opus 4.6. Really has serious chops in Rust.

      Tomorrow/Wednesday will try a month of their $40 plan and see how it goes.

      • victorbjorklund 48 minutes ago
        Minimax 2.7 is great. Not close to Claude but good enough for a lot of coding tasks.
    • manmal 1 hour ago
      Looks like they are falling victim to their own slop. This smells a lot like the Amazon outages caused by mandated clanker usage.
    • skwallace36 25 minutes ago
      things are rough out there right now
  • fercircularbuf 3 minutes ago
    I love the pedagogical approach here and the ability to easily hone in on your level before diving into content. Your approach would work really well for other subjects as well.
  • MeetingsBrowser 1 hour ago
    I use claude code every day, I've written plugins and skills, use MCP servers, subagent workflows, and filled out the "Find your level" quiz as such.

    According to the quiz, I am a beginner!

    • Esophagus4 1 hour ago
      Did anyone not get beginner?

      I got it as well.

      • the_other 5 minutes ago
        I'm a beginner with agentic coding. I vibe code something most days, from a few lines up to refactors over a few files. I don't knowingly use skills, rarely _choose_ to call out to tools, haven't written any skills and only one or two ad hoc scripts, and have barely touched MCPs (because the few I've used seem flaky and erratic). I answered as such and got... intermediate.
  • npilk 1 hour ago
    Strongly agree with the sentiment, but I'd say if you're familiar with the terminal you may as well just install it and truly 'learn by doing'!

    I could see this being great for true beginners, but for them it might be nice to have even some more basics to start (how do I open the terminal, what is a command, etc).

  • yoyohello13 1 hour ago
    People will do anything to avoid RTFM.
  • jurakovic 32 minutes ago
    Is that quiz correct? I have answered mostly C or D and maybe a few of B, but still got "Beginner". How?!
    • roxolotl 22 minutes ago
      The quiz is super weird too. They A-C are knowledge questions D is something you’ve done.
  • Yiin 1 hour ago
    find your level -> answer D to everything -> you're a beginner! And I thought I have high standards...
  • nickphx 1 hour ago
    Why wpuld anyone want to "learn" how to use some non-deterministic black box of bullshit that is frequently wrong? When you get different output fkr the same input, how do you learn? How is that beneficial? Why would you waste your time learning something that is frequently changing at the whims of some greedy third party? No thanks.
    • ForHackernews 1 hour ago
      Because you will soon be working for it unless you learn to make it work for you.
      • i_love_retros 50 minutes ago
        It's fucking insane that we all have to pay rent every month to an AI company just to keep doing our jobs.
        • nice_byte 36 minutes ago
          you literally don't have to. you can literally just keep doing your job the way that you always have.
          • i_love_retros 19 minutes ago
            I probably won't have a job for much longer if I do that, unfortunately
            • nice_byte 15 minutes ago
              I don't think that is true.
        • HDBaseT 36 minutes ago
          [dead]
  • Adam_cipher 17 minutes ago
    [dead]
    • nixpulvis 8 minutes ago
      I think it's funny and interesting how LLMs are commoditizing information generation. It's completely expected, but also somewhat challenging to figure out what the best combination of "learning" "fact" systems is.

      I'd be curious to know more about how this compares to other approaches.

    • jatora 7 minutes ago
      AI comment.
    • huflungdung 12 minutes ago
      [dead]
  • maxbeech 2 hours ago
    [dead]
  • wetpaws 1 hour ago
    [dead]
  • mrtksn 1 hour ago
    Are people again learning a new set of tools? Just tell the AI what you want, if the AI tool doesn't allow that then tell another Ai tool to make you a translation layer that will convert the natural language to the commands etc. What's the point of learning yet another tool?
    • faeyanpiraat 1 hour ago
      I cannot decipher what you mean, have you mixed up the tabs, and wanted to post this somewhere else?

      The linked site is a pretty good interactive Claude tutorial for beginners.

      • sznio 1 hour ago
        I don't understand the purpose of a tutorial for a natural language ai system.
        • rco8786 1 hour ago
          Claude Code is a tool that uses natural language ai systems. It itself is not a natural language ai system.
          • mrtksn 1 hour ago
            The idea that AI can write code like a seasoned software developer but not being able to use its own tooling that can be learned through 11 chapters tutorial doesn't make any sense.
        • arbitrary_name 33 minutes ago
          sounds like you might benefit from a tutorial!
      • mrtksn 1 hour ago
        Nope, why would anybody type commands to a machine that does natural language processing? Just tell the thing what you want.
        • dsQTbR7Y5mRHnZv 29 minutes ago
          "Part of the initial excitement in programming is easy to explain: just the fact that when you tell the computer to do something, it will do it. Unerringly. Forever. Without a complaint.

          And that’s interesting in itself.

          But blind obedience on its own, while initially fascinating, obviously does not make for a very likeable companion. What makes programming so engaging is that, while you can make the computer do what you want, you have to figure out how."[0]

          - [0] https://www.brynmawr.edu/inside/academic-information/departm...

        • faeyanpiraat 1 hour ago
          Yes, but you gotta learn what is possible.

          I wouldn't have the thought to say to the machine to compact its context if I didn't know it has context and it can be compacted, right?

          • rzzzt 9 minutes ago
            Why do I need to tell the machine to compact its context? This feels like homework and/or ceremony.
          • mrtksn 1 hour ago
            Good point, but IMHO the learning material for this should be the basics of LLM.
    • cyanydeez 1 hour ago
      I think somewhere between 2016 and 2026 the market realized that programmers _love_ writing tools for themselves and others, and it went full bore into catering to the Bike Shedding economy, and now AI is accelerating this to an absurd degree.
      • mrtksn 1 hour ago
        Me too, I love writing tools for myself and end up yak shaving all the time but why there's a tutorial for a machine that understand human language? Just type down your inner monologue and it will do it.