TL;DR for busy professionals:
- Claude codes like a brilliant junior developer — and here's how to compensate for that.
- I've managed to break Claude (and figured out how to fix it).
- My real pain is Claude's presentations and artifacts (and why).
- Sometimes Claude doesn't know something — and that's OK (easy fix).
- I still love Claude — she gives me a 48× productivity multiplier.
In a previous post, I promised to write about the drawbacks of using Claude.ai.
I've been delaying it — because, honestly, I've struggled to find any.
I've been using Claude for about three months, and I meant it when I wrote that Claude has been my de-facto cofounder while I search for a human one.
- Someone to bounce ideas with.
- Erudite. Available 24/7. Eager to help.
- All for $20 per month.
Claude has built the entire MVP prototype for my startup Remake.ai — and I could not be happier with the results.
But, yes — there are drawbacks. Let's get into them.
👧1. Claude codes like a brilliant, yet junior developer
Claude's first-pass implementations consistently look like the work of a brilliant but junior dev.
Here's my workflow:
I prompt Claude to implement a feature — without over-specifying how. Claude builds it the way she prefers. Then I test it. Usually, I ask for refactors: break large files apart, adjust class structure, improve reusability.
I prefer it this way.
Because I'm developing a non-standard system, I often don't know the final structure yet.
Claude's first pass helps me see possibilities I wouldn't have thought of.
Claude needs senior-level supervision — someone who can architect, review, and guide. Without that, the codebase will quickly turn messy. I feel that consistently.
When I combine Claude's energy with my architectural judgment, the result is stunning:
a year of work done in a month, while personally coding maybe 25% of it. That's my 48× productivity multiplier.
🤕2. How I broke Claude (and how to fix it)
Sometimes, Claude just... gets the flu.
Performance drops, attention to detail slips.
Once I noticed the async keyword missing in front of some Python functions. I prompted Claude to fix that - and offhandedly referred to those functions as "non-async,"
A couple of prompts later, I noticed Claude started forgetting to prepend async during refactoring throughout the code base.
I realized the issue was probably me, my inaccurate prompting.
The fix:
- 💡 Start a new chat to reset context. Claude recovers instantly.
Lesson learned — words matter more than I thought.
🤦 3. My real pain: Claude's presentations and artifacts
This one really hurts.
Claude makes great presentations — in HTML.
Not PowerPoint. Not Google Slides.
HTML.
If you've ever tried converting HTML slides to PowerPoint, you know the pain.
My current workflow:
- Edit HTML + CSS by hand.
- Take screenshots of each slide.
- Paste into PowerPoint or Google Slides.
- Resize until fonts look right.
- Export to PDF.
Yes, it works. But it feels like building slides before PowerPoint existed.
Longer decks (15–20 slides) often break mid-generation. Claude usually fixes them — but it can take 5–10 iterations before I get a clean version.
Still, I'll take that over writing decks from scratch.
🤔4. Sometimes Claude doesn't know something
Rarely, but this can happen. Specifically, I had to help Claude when coding for the ROS2 robotics platform.
Claude assumed a certain way to run a ROS2 node, which failed during testing.
My fix:
I give Claude a working example file. She reads it, adapts instantly, and corrects herself.
With the right example, Claude becomes an instant domain expert.
🪰5. Debugging and testing
Claude debugs surprisingly well — but someone still needs to act as the architect, debugger, and systems engineer.
In my project she installs npm modules, Python libraries, sets up venv and runs tests, but I usually handle the environment setup — like installing ROS2 or configuring GPUs.
I use VS Code with Claude's plugin. It's fantastic — no need for Cursor.
❤️ Why I Love Claude (No Matter What)
Because the trade-off is unbeatable.
Claude writes my code, drafts my business plans, helps me explore funding strategies, drafts NDAs for manufacturers, and even gives feedback on resumes.
I can ask (and have asked over and over):
- "What if I raise early and aggressively?"
- "What if I bootstrap longer?"
- "How should I pitch to investors vs job applicants vs factories in China?"
Claude answers in seconds — and helps me think harder. That said, it does take me tens of minutes to digest Claude's advice. That's my flaw, not Claude's.
So yes, Claude has flaws.
But overall, she's the best cofounder I've ever had — energetic, brilliant, and humble enough to learn.
Final thought:
If you're a founder or engineer considering using Claude for real-world product work — do it.
Just remember: treat her like a promising junior developer.
Guide her with senior wisdom.
And enjoy the 48× speedup.
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