Rutger de Knijf

What does that mean? Just this: When something annoys me twice - or even once, actually - I don’t fix it, I make a folder, start Claude Code, and (try my very best to) hand the problem over permanently. It sounds annoyingly simple. It kind of is. But the people I’ve shown this to keep doing it, and that’s usually how you know something works. And I can tell it sure made my life a lot easier. I’ve never had my ducks as in a row as I do now, it’s actually just weirding me out sometimes. ...

The problem wasn’t tokens. It was having to keep wondering. Every long session with Claude, you’re running a background process in your head. Is it still sharp? Am I burning too fast? What model did I switch to? You don’t notice this overhead until you eliminate it — and then you realize how much clearer everything gets. I built a status line that answers all five questions at a glance. ...

You’re probably not running out of tokens. You’re running out of confidence. If your plan is too small, no widget fixes that — upgrade first. But if you’re on a flat-rate subscription and still rationing prompts like a hiker rationing water on a trail that turned out to be two miles long, the problem isn’t supply. It’s visibility. You self-throttle because you can’t see the gauge, and you finish the day with budget to spare and nothing ambitious to show for it. That’s overhead, not output. ...

Something subtle happens as your Claude Code context fills up. The output gets slightly less sharp. The architecture suggestions get more generic. The creative leaps come less often. The code still works, but it’s more… obvious. This isn’t the old “AI forgot what I said” problem — Opus 4.6 stays on target like a bloodhound, even at 80% context. It’s more like the difference between a colleague who’s fresh in the morning and one who’s been in meetings all day. Still competent. Just not at their best. ...

I finally got a secretary. Not a real one, alas, but still. Ever since I can remember I’ve wanted one. First mostly because my dad had one, and to the five-year-old me he was of course the most powerful man in the world. If I had a secretary, I’d be powerful too, and that would make him proud. Easy! When I got older this understanding shifted to finding the idea of a secretary extremely practical. Imagine not having to think of hard-to-remember stuff, like names and birthdays. ...