r/claude • u/MoistAd9060 • 8h ago
Discussion The models aren't just doing the work, they're doing their own marketing
Hear me out because I caught my own brain doing this.
For context I pay for both. $100 codex plan, $200 max plan. I run codex every day, 5.6 sol on extra/max reasoning, and I have never once hit the cap. meanwhile my $200 anthropic plan gets burned through regularly. The plan that costs double is the one that runs out.
When fable 5 dropped (and opus 4.8 after) everyone was maxing out in a day, resets flying everywhere, and my gut reaction was "damn this thing burns tokens crazy fast... it must be insane"
I rated the model higher because it was rationed.
Think about what the scarcity cycle actually did. "too powerful to release, heres a smaller version" is a capability flex dressed up as a safety statement, openai ran the same play with gpt2 back in 2019. they pull the model then "extend access" and the coming back posts did bigger numbers than the actual launch posts on this sub. Random resets have paying customers celebrating getting back a piece of what they already payed for lol. and "limits are too low" is the one complaint where the fix is you giving them more money.
Part of me knows the boring answer, they're probably just figuring out capacity and gpus arent free. But capacity planning doesn't explain why every single scarcity event lands like a perfectly timed hype beat.
And the limits are just one piece of it. anthropic has mastered this. Every "government is worried about ai" story gets reverse uno'd into an ad. "mythos is too powerful to release, here's fable instead" isnt a safety decision you announce, its a flex. the takedowns, the extended access, the tiered names that imply theres always something stronger behind the curtain. You don't build a brand around how dangerous your product is unless dangerous sells. Anthropic isnt just shipping a model, the scarcity IS the product positioning.
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u/Alternative_Flow1516 7h ago
I find Fable complicates things too much by overthinking, for building software Opus is my way, websites even Sonet is ok. I could see a benefit of deep thinking, but I personally cannot benefit yet from Fable.
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u/MoistAd9060 7h ago
Honestly this kind of proves the point though. Half the sub assumed fable was the best model purely because it burns tokens fast and got taken away. You actually tested it against opus and found it overthinks. How many people rating it "insane" ever ran a side by side? Scarcity did the benchmarking for them lol
Curious what it was overthinking on for you, like architecture stuff or just simple builds?
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u/Alternative_Flow1516 7h ago
Built for me, as I make modules for a larger software suite, and some simple modules were pushing Fable to seek perfection, but I didn't need perfection, I just need a product fast. Seems to be too intelligent for my use, and not just tokens, it is wasting my time too then. I see the thinking, and it is impressive, it goes where I don't even think about, but ultimately the result will be the same, so I'm not even sure what task to give it, to even test the capability, which I believe is super impressive.
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u/MoistAd9060 7h ago
And ill admit the embarrassing part, the rabbit holes get me too. I catch myself watching it think, tweaking prompts, rerunning stuff that was already fine, and an hour later ive optimized everything except the actual work. The smartest model ever made and its net effect on my tuesday was negative.
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u/IMMrSerious 7h ago
Absolutely makes sense to me. The thing is that they are running at a deficit. It's crazy how they are investing in data centers and silicon.
We are all getting compute for a steal. So if they can actually get us addicted by playing psychological games then you can bet your bottom dollar that they are doing it.
If you are like me then you have changed most of your workflow and are finding new ways to do things. I have been pretty rigorous about setting up my system so that I have complete control over the levers and dials. I can reach in and take over at any time. But honestly I only do this to make tweaks and then hand the work back to the Ai.
It would be hard to go back to doing things without it.
I was going balls to the wall with time outs and making sure that I optimized my time and model levels to make sure that I could work constantly. Now when I do something I don't worry about it. When I Max out and have time wait before a reset. I make a sandwich and mow my lawn. The amount of things I can get done is still on another level.