Claude Code creator Boris Cherny: there's no one weird trick, iterate empirically
rohanpaul_ai · x · 2026-09-07
At Y Combinator's Startup School, Diana Hu asked Claude Code creator Boris Cherny how people can learn to use the tool like he does. His answer: "Maybe don't listen to the LinkedIn influencers."
Key points:
- No magic trick exists: everyone looks for a "one weird trick," but you have to approach the model empirically.
- The method: give the model a task that is too hard, and give it the tools to verify its own work — the same tools you'd use yourself.
- Iterate on failure: see where it struggles, then fix it with better prompting, a skill, or an MCP connection that supplies missing context.
- People overthink and overengineer because that's how systems had to be built in the past.
Full video is on Y Combinator's YouTube channel.
Related event: Claude Code Creator: Delete claude.md and Skills Every Six Months(4 posts)→
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