Make it A.I.
Without the vast knowledge and capability of Commander Data, Captain Jean-Luke Picard would not have been nearly as effective or successful in battle.
From the moment I first installed and typed “Claude” at my raspiOS command prompt, I have been blown away by what is possible with this tool. The Star Trek character Captain Jean Luke Picard had an A.I. android; Commander Data, next to him providing him with the sum total of the universe’s knowledge and hands on capability at his finger tips whenever it was needed. That is how I feel when I wake up my instance of Claude and begin solving, building, learning and above all else saving a tonne of time to get things done.
Commander Data does not replace the good Captain and A.I. does not have to replace us. - Properly managed - A.I. tools augment our skills so we get more done faster and move forward more effectively in our journeys.
My setup is simple. I have Claude Code running on one of my rasperry pi (5) boards and it runs very well in that space. I have build 3 projects with Claude’s “help” and I have many more thoughts about how I can benefit from the vast coding skills that I can tap into with Claude Code.
But with great capability comes a cost and how you decide to setup your billing matters. My current approach is to use the API model in the pricing structure. That allows me to consume on a pay as you go structure. This will seem expensive at first but it will help me to measure if I will actually benefit from the monthly plans which at publish time were here: https://claude.com/pricing There are considerations for what becomes “free” vs consuming tokens in the API model but these won’t be huge. What I am seeing is I might be a “Max” user specifically MAX5 but I’m going to watch it for a month more and decide. I pull away from the desk in the summer and early fall to boat and cottage so that is a consideration as well. In any case it will be the most I have paid for a subscription but it also is of huge value to me.
The key is to start small and keep an eye on the /cost command and the dashboard. Anthropic recently did a model upgrade and it consumes more (they admit this) hence more to consider about watching the costs.
Rarely though has there been software capability introduced that can adapt to your needs, develop a plan and execute for you the way these evolving AI coding tools do. What a great era to be a maker!
Now to go and give my A.I. a personality like Commander Data and solve the universes’ problems.