Similar experience. I just tried Claude for the first time last week, and I gave it very small tasks. "Create a data class myClass with these fields<•••> and set it up to generate a database table using micronaut data" was one example. I still have to know exactly what to do, but I find it very nice that I didn't have to remember how to configure micronaut data, (which tbf is really easy) I just had to know that that's what I wanted to use. It's not as revolutionary as the hype, but it does increase productivity quite a bit, and also makes programming more fun I think. I get to focus on what I want to build, instead of trying to remember jdbc minutiae. Then I just sanity check the generated code, and trust that I will spot mistakes in that jdbc connection. It felt like the world's most intuitive abstraction layer between me and the keyboard, a pretty cool feeling.

Just for fun, once I had played a bit with it like that, I just told it to finish the application with some vague Jira-epic level instructions on what I wanted in it and then fed it the errors it got.

It eventually managed to get something working but... Let's just say it's a good thing this was a toy project I did specifically to try out Claude, and not something anyone is going to use, much less maintain!

> Just for fun, once I had played a bit with it like that, I just told it to finish the application with some vague Jira-epic level instructions on what I wanted in it and then fed it the errors it got.

Would you finish the application with "some vague Jira-epic level instructions"? Or, even if you don't formally make tickets in Jira for them, do you go from vague Jira-epic-sized notions to ticket-sized items? If I had a mind-control helmet that forced you to just write code and not let you break down that jira-epic in your thoughts, do you think the code would be any good? I don't think mine would be.

So then, why does it seem reasonable that Claude would be any good, given such a mental straight jacket? Use planning mode, the keyword "ultrathink" and the phrase "do not write code", and have it break down the vage Jira epic into ticket-sized items, and then have it break it into sub tickets that are byte-sized tasks, and then have it get to work.