5 Quick Links for Devs: Week 17, 2026

Why I Cancelled Claude: Token Issues, Declining Quality, and Poor Support

This is starting to look like a running theme, where over the past few months Anthropic crossed a line and people started to call out the quality of their offerings. December 2026 was a real peak for vibe coding and AI hype, and since then Anthropic has been notable for their deteriorating or janky service, quality control issues and poor support.

AI tools aren't extremely 'sticky', especially for developers (or until they manage to lock you in with files or memories, something they haven't nailed yet). Losing the PR battle is a surefire way to lose customers to the competitor.

A.I. Should Elevate Your Thinking, Not Replace It

John Koshy has noticed that software engineering appears to be splitting into two groups. One uses AI tools to do grunt work and handle rudimentary manual tasks, giving them more time to focus on the higher-level tasks. The other group is using AI to avoid thinking. Personally I've experimented with agentic coding on both extremes, and my stance now is that these tools should be understood and used, but should not replace your underlying knowledge of the task at hand. Like the title says, if we use these tools to replace our thinking it won't be long before we won't be able to think for ourselves.

Concrete Laptop Stand

I found this really cool, a nice bit of design and a cool insight into the manufacturing process.