Claude Code, Claude Cowork and Codex #5

https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2026/03/09/claude-code-claude-cowork-and-codex-5/

by swolpers • 4 months ago

49 42 4 months ago

thezvi.wordpress.com

mslt2• 4 months ago

Can we stop normalizing the bizarre and childish rename of the us defense department?

tombert• 4 months ago

I find it amusing that Trump ran with the promise of "no new wars", and then immediately tries to change the Department of Defense to the Department of War.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised by a hollow promise from Trump at this point.

panarky• 4 months ago

I find it amusing that Franco ran with the promise of "justice for those with clean hands," and then immediately enacted the Law of Political Responsibilities to institutionalize the summary execution of tens of thousands of his political opponents.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised by a hollow promise from Franco at this point.

patates• 4 months ago

As an outsider, the extent and depth of the contradictions are really fascinating, OTOH repeated to the point that nothing surprises anyone anymore.

I keep thinking what's the psychology behind this that makes it work and if they are mostly in on the act or if they really rely on many "useful idiots" like their political opponents keep suggesting.

The discussion around useful idiots became concerning for me as I'm learning to respect people even in the most "don't look up"-like situations, trying to understand their individual motives without judging them. The main problem in political discussions, I figured, is the fact that we have 2-3 groups we try to fit people into.

Wow, I made that digress quickly :)

dijit• 4 months ago

I think its rather apt.

I welcome the de-1984-ification of governmental functions.

Its clear that Trump wants to be at war, with their interventions, so, why not?

mslt2• 4 months ago

It’s fine that a secondary consequence is them showing their foolish hand; I’ll give you that, but this not normal and should not just be absorbed as though it’s normal and that’s just what we call it now

selfawareMammal• 4 months ago

Nah. The current one is in fact more accurate.

robbomacrae• 4 months ago

Genuinely surprised they didn't try to get away with department of peace.

bbor2• 4 months ago

The "current one" is Department of Defense. They are illegally branding it otherwise without congressional approval, but that doesn't mean we should welcome it.

More fundamentally, it's hard to convey just how much better a government that wages wars but ostensibly says that they're bad is than a government that gleefully does so. I'll take a flawed democracy that partakes in immoral operations over an openly-imperialist autocracy any day of the week -- as should we all!

kubb• 4 months ago

Is there anything interesting in there? I skimmed and it seems like reporting on Twitter posts, and news about the 2 leading LLM providers that have been extensively covered on HN.

foo42• 4 months ago

And this is the best country in the world, with the best system of government, because private citizens can voice their disagreement with such actions, including by refusal to participate.

On the off chance other Americans were unaware of this: Other countries are democracies too (and many are better functioning)

xhcuvuvyc• 4 months ago

America's not a democracy, hell it's not even a country.

qsort2• 4 months ago

???

abyssin• 4 months ago

This kind of patriotism is embarrassing, I don’t think I have ever seen it displayed by others than US citizens.

noduerme• 4 months ago

Well, North Koreans and Iranians say it, but they have a gun to their heads.

andruby2• 4 months ago

That quote was indeed off-putting to read.

because private citizens can voice their disagreement

I'm not sure that's true anymore in the US. At least not without fearing repercussions.

bbor2• 4 months ago

Yeah that's a terrible note to start on -- this is just someone hoping for a pat on the head from the fascists. Not even they would truly believe something so absurd!

That whole intro is whack, really;

  There are many things that I or Anthropic or most of you would look at as mass domestic surveillance, that are legal, and it is DoW’s position that it’s their job and duty to do everything legal to protect our country, including those things.

"It's not their fault that they're evil, they're doing things that have yet to be explicitly forbidden by statute!" would be bad enough for a typical executive agency, but to say that about the US Department of Defense in March 2026 is just... brazen.

knuppar• 4 months ago

how cooked do you have to be to synthesize that sentence without universal healthcare and an enormous chunk of the population living paycheck to paycheck

dash22• 4 months ago

You're the richest country in the world (Andorra isn't real, don't @ me). And if you want universal healthcare, come and experience the joy of the NHS. I have to actually live with it.

jaccola3• 4 months ago

Some would say having a choice of which healthcare to pay for, the ability to choose a provider, the right to not pay for healthcare (maybe you value an extra holiday more than being able to go to a GP) is a good thing.

I'm from the UK, everyone I've met in the NHS has good intentions but the system itself means the standard of care is very poor. I have no option to go elsewhere with my £'s if a receptionist is extremely rude to me or a doctor won't listen.

Not to say the US system is perfect, just that adding even more government intervention (and associated plunder) by making healthcare universal, is perhaps not the answer.

inemesitaffia• 4 months ago

UK and Germany

jtrn• 4 months ago

I found this an incredibly well written and interesting read. A bit of a strange format… is it an article or a newsletter or something else? It is extremely long. I don’t really care though. Because I loved the combination of quotes, insights and links. Thanks.

pugio• 4 months ago

Lately my favorite podcast to listen to has been the audio version of Zvi's blog: https://dwatvpodcast.substack.com/p/claude-code-claude-cowor... .

It's AI narrated, but at this point if I heard Zvi's actual voice I think I would be confused. It's really well done, and uses different voices for each new person being quoted. It also has really good narrated image descriptions.

Zvi's articles are literally exhaustively long,l - before I was able to listen to them I got tired trying to read the whole thing. Now it's my favorite way to keep up with AI.

lAshgar• 4 months ago

Breathless thought snippets with an all-in fueled propaganda introduction. Let me see if I can do it, too:

"I am 100 years old and my young wife's lover has discovered Claude Code. I am allowed to sit in the cuck seat whenever he pleases my wife. But what really energizes me is to watch him code: He is sitting in the programmer's cuck seat watching Claude Code work and I am sitting in the meta cuck seat watching him watch Claude. It keeps me awake at night. This isn't just evolution;;;it's revolution!"

(See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47282777 for the marketing inspiration)

Claude Code, Claude Cowork and Codex #5

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