Anti-Move
Added Mar 2026
New
Know when to stop
The most important skill with AI isn't solving problems. It's knowing which problems aren't worth solving.
The trap
AI makes solving problems feel free. You describe something mildly annoying, AI starts building a fix, and suddenly you're 10 minutes into configuring a folder watcher for a task you do manually in 4 seconds.
The trap is that AI is so willing. It never says "this isn't worth your time." It'll happily spend 20 minutes exploring system preferences, researching automation hooks, and proposing watcher scripts for a problem you mentioned offhand.
Real example: the screenshot thing
I use a screenshot app called Shottr. To get a shareable link, I open Shottr and press Cmd+E. Takes about 4 seconds.
I asked Claude Code to auto-upload screenshots so I could skip those 4 seconds. Here's what happened:
Me: Can I have Shottr auto upload pics?
Claude: [reads Shottr preferences]
Claude: [checks for folder watchers]
Claude: [researches Hammerspoon automation]
Claude: [proposes AppleScript keyboard triggers]
Claude: Quick question: does the editor open
automatically, or do you click the
thumbnail first?
Me: well shottr doesn't immediately open is
the issue. i think this is a non issue
for now. something to solve later if at
all lol
Five minutes of exploration to save 4 seconds. And the automation would've introduced timing issues, window-watching scripts, and a new thing that could break.
The anti-move
Notice when you've crossed from "solving a real problem" into "engineering a solution because you can." Then say the magic words: "this is a non-issue for now."
That's it. You just saved yourself an hour. And the thing you walked away from? You'll either forget about it (proof it didn't matter) or it'll come back when it actually matters (and then you'll solve it for real).
The smell test
1. How often do I actually do this?
(daily = maybe worth it. weekly = probably not)
2. How long does the manual version take?
(4 seconds? walk away)
3. Am I solving this because it bothers me,
or because I can?
4. If I do nothing, what actually happens?
Why this matters more than you think
When you have a hammer that can build anything, everything looks like a nail. The creative advantage isn't building more. It's building less, better. Every hour you don't spend automating a non-problem is an hour you can spend on the thing that actually matters.
Engineers over-build. That's their training. If you don't have that training, you might actually be better at this. Trust the instinct that says "nah, this is fine."
CLAUDE.MD
Added Feb 2026
New
The scratch pad: teaching AI to learn from its mistakes
Give your AI a file to track what it gets wrong. Read it every session. Watch it get sharper over days and weeks. Baby continual learning in a markdown file on your laptop.
The problem
Every AI session starts from zero. It makes the same mistakes, misses the same preferences, takes the same wrong approaches. You correct it, it forgets, you correct it again. Cold starts, every time.
The fix
Create a markdown file. Tell the AI: "This is your scratch pad. Track your mistakes here. Read it every time we start." That's it. The AI writes its own learning framework.
You: Build a file where you track your mistakes
and what I like. Read it at the start of every
session. Update it as we work.
Claude Code: [creates learnings.md with sections for
mistakes, corrections, preferences,
approaches that worked]
What happens next
1
Session 1: Normal
It reads an empty file, works, logs a few things. Nothing special yet.
2
Session 2: It's checking its notes
Reads what went wrong last time. Adjusts its approach before you say anything.
3
Session 3: It's fixing things before you catch them
Patterns from previous corrections start showing up as proactive behavior.
5
Session 5: It's a different tool
Not better autocomplete. Something else. It's updating what it knows from experience.
The structure
You can let the AI design this itself, or start with something like:
### 2026-02-08 | Overwhelmed user with options
Dumped 20 choices. User froze. Fix: curate, don't list.
- Voice memos as source material (thinking out loud > writing)
- One option at a time, not a wall of choices
- Show context first, then discuss
### 2026-02-08 | Tinder-style picker for decisions
Too many options? Yes/no/maybe swiper. Picked 5 instead of 0.
Why this matters
Right now, coders are the main ones feeling this. Everyone else is still on cold starts. But this pattern works for anything: writing, research, legal work, medical reasoning. Give any AI a scratch pad of its own errors and watch what happens when that context stacks over days and weeks.
The compounding gains are hard to convey until you've lived them. It's not a feature announcement. It's not a press conference. It's tools that remember where they failed and come back sharper. Over and over.
How to set it up (2 minutes)
- Create a file in your project:
learnings.md or scratch-pad.md
- Add one instruction to your CLAUDE.md: "Read learnings.md at session start. Log mistakes, corrections, and what works as you go."
- Work normally. The scratch pad fills itself.
Pro tip
Let it design its own structure
Tell the AI: "Build a file where you track your mistakes and what I like." It writes its own learning framework. Then you just work. The structure evolves as the AI figures out what's worth tracking.
Scraping + Research
Updated Jan 2026
Reddit scraping with Claude Code
Crawl any subreddit, pull hundreds of posts and comments, and turn raw community data into actual insight. No coding required.
Why Reddit?
Reddit is one of the best places to understand what real people actually think. Not influencers, not marketers. Real humans complaining, recommending, and asking questions.
Three things you can pull from Reddit:
- The vibe of a community - how do people in r/yourspace actually talk? What language do they use?
- Painpoints - what are people frustrated about, asking for help with, or wishing existed?
- Recommendations + hate - what tools/products/services do people love or trash?
Two things to know about Reddit culture: they hate promo, and there are a lot of bots. These things are related.
The simple version (no setup)
Reddit has a trick: add .json to the end of any Reddit URL and you get structured data back. Claude Code can work with this directly.
You: Go to this subreddit and pull the top posts from
the last week. Summarize what people are talking
about, what painpoints come up, and what tools
people are recommending.
https://www.reddit.com/r/networking/.json
No API keys, no scripts, nothing to install. Claude Code fetches it, parses it, gives you a summary.
The better version (PRAW + Python)
For deeper pulls (hundreds of posts, comments, historical data), set up Reddit's official API. Takes about 5 minutes:
- Go to reddit.com/prefs/apps/ and create an app (type: "script")
- Tell Claude Code what subreddit you want, how many posts, and hand it your credentials
- It writes and runs the scraper for you, saves everything to JSON
You: I want to scrape r/networking for the top 50 posts
this week. Grab title, score, and top 10 comments
for each. Save to JSON.
Claude Code: [writes reddit_praw_scraper.py]
Claude Code: [runs it, saves 50 posts + 312 comments]
Claude Code: Done. Extracted 50 posts and 312 comments
from r/networking. Saved to reddit_data.json
When Reddit blocks you (the Gemini trick)
Reddit blocks a lot of automated requests. If Claude Code gets a 403, there's a workaround: use Gemini CLI as a middleman.
Gemini has its own web access that Reddit doesn't block. You ask Claude Code to spin up a Gemini session, have Gemini fetch the content, then pull the results back for analysis. One AI fetching data for another AI. Weird hack, but it works.
The automated version (Apify + GitHub Actions)
For ongoing monitoring, you can set up a pipeline: Apify scrapes the subreddit on a schedule, Claude API analyzes the data, and Resend emails you the briefing. Alex D has this running for r/ClaudeAI - every 8 hours, a formatted briefing hits his inbox automatically.
Example prompts to try right now
Prompt 1: Fetch the top 25 posts from r/[SUBREDDIT]
this month. Analyze: what are the recurring themes
and painpoints?
Prompt 2: Search Reddit for posts mentioning
[YOUR_PRODUCT]. Summarize the sentiment - what do
people love, hate, wish was different?
Prompt 3: Pull the most upvoted comments from the
top 10 posts in r/[SUBREDDIT] this week. What
language do people in this community use?
Market Research
Updated Jan 2026
Live example: Networking painpoints
We ran the Reddit research playbook for real. Here's what we found about professional networking frustrations, done in about 30 minutes.
The process (step by step)
1
Tried the direct route
Asked Claude Code to fetch Reddit's JSON API. Reddit blocked it (403). This happens a lot.
2
Used the Gemini workaround
Spun up Gemini CLI in a tmux session, asked it to search across 5 subreddits. Gemini pulled results and synthesized themes.
3
Ran broader web searches
Found where these conversations actually live and what language people use. This is the part most people skip, and it's the most valuable part.
4
Synthesized into themes
Combined everything into the painpoints, subreddit map, and search term guide below.
Where to look
Not all subreddits are created equal. Here's where people actually talk about networking pain:
r/Entrepreneur
r/sales
r/careerguidance
r/startups
r/smallbusiness
r/introvert
r/freelance
r/LinkedInLunatics
r/EntrepreneurRideAlong
What to search for
Don't search "professional networking painpoints." Nobody talks like that. Here's what real people type:
Emotional (high signal)
"I hate networking"
"networking feels fake"
"networking is exhausting"
"networking sucks"
"waste of time"
Specific frustrations
"LinkedIn spam messages"
"cold outreach annoying"
"business cards useless"
"follow up after networking"
"cold DM" + spam
The 5 big painpoints we found
01
"It feels fake and transactional"
The #1 complaint by a mile. People describe networking as "slimy," "dirty," and "like being a used car salesman." The structure itself turns relationships into transactions.
02
"Events are a waste of time"
Overscheduled, crowded, poorly organized. The recurring image: standing in a room full of strangers, balancing lukewarm wine and stale crackers, stumbling over your elevator pitch.
03
"Follow-up is broken"
Business cards get lost immediately. Only a tiny fraction of event exchanges turn into real conversations. The gap between "we met" and "we have a relationship" is huge.
04
"LinkedIn has become unusable"
64% of users report being annoyed by cold outreach. 35% call it straight-up spam. The tool that was supposed to make networking easier has become the biggest source of frustration.
05
"Introverts are just... left out"
The entire networking system is designed for extroverts. But here's the thing: most humans find this stuff uncomfortable. The system assumes everyone thrives in loud rooms full of strangers.
What people wish existed
- Context-first connections - connecting around shared problems, not just "we're both entrepreneurs"
- Async relationship building - not everything needs to be a live event
- Better follow-up tools - something between business cards and a full CRM
- Smaller, purpose-driven groups - mastermind groups and cohorts over big conferences
- Less performative, more real - AI matching and curated small groups are gaining ground
How to run this for YOUR industry
- Start with search terms people actually use (emotional language, not marketing language)
- Find 5-8 subreddits where your audience hangs out
- Use Claude Code to scrape, or the Gemini workaround when Reddit blocks you
- Don't just read titles. Comments are where the real pain lives.
- Look for recurring phrases. If 20 different people say "networking feels fake," that's your messaging.
The whole process took about 30 minutes.