The best engineer I've ever worked with
An AI-powered collaborator that collapses the loop between idea and execution
The thought
A month ago, I started experimenting with a tool called Claude Code. It’s an AI-powered coding environment from Anthropic, and it’s one of those rare tools that can instantly change how fast and confidently you work.
The pitch is simple:
You write what you want.
It writes the code, explains the choices, and fixes itself when things break.
It remembers the context of your project, so you can have an ongoing conversation with your codebase.
I’ve used plenty of AI tools before, but this one was different. The loop between “idea” and “working version” collapsed. Tasks that would have taken me a day could be done before lunch. Even better - it was just as useful for quick fixes, documentation, and refactoring as it was for building something from scratch.
What surprised me most wasn’t the speed. It was how quickly non-engineers could get value from it. Product managers, designers, and ops folks could suddenly tinker with prototypes, pull data, or automate tedious processes without waiting in a queue for engineering resources. That’s a quiet superpower in most companies.
If you’re thinking about trying it, here’s how to start:
Pick a small but real project you’ve been meaning to build or improve.
Bring it into Claude Code and talk to it like a collaborator - not a vending machine. Give context, explain your goals, and ask it to think out loud.
Keep your first few loops short. Build, run, fix, repeat.
Share what you’ve made with your team. Momentum builds adoption faster than any policy.
Every workplace has a few bottlenecks that everyone just accepts. Claude Code is the kind of tool that can quietly remove them - if you let people experiment.
The links
1. How Social Media Shapes Our Identity – From The New Yorker, a contemplative essay on how a persistent online record affects our ability to reinvent ourselves - and what that means for personal growth and memory.
2. The Museum of Broken Windows – An unconventional NYC art exhibit exploring policing, surveillance, and urban change. Part documentary, part protest, part civic design experiment.
The jobs
These are through a hiring board where I can make a referral directly to the hiring manager. If you’re interested, reach out to me (elihorne@gmail.com) with a short paragraph about why you’d be great and a link to your linkedin profile. If it seems like a fit, I’ll make the intro.
Senior Product Designer – Fay
Help shape the future of Fay, a fast-growing startup on a mission to help people eat better and live better. Post-Series B, small design team, high-impact role. Looking for a craft-obsessed, consumer product designer with startup speed. Bonus points for illustration, motion design, or design systems experience.
VP / Head of Engineering – Table22
Lead the rebuild of an AI-native commerce platform for the $1T+ food and beverage industry. Full-time or fractional. Requires 8+ years engineering experience, 5+ in senior leadership, plus experience with LLM/ML in user-facing products.
Marketing Director – Brij
Define and execute B2B marketing for an AI-powered platform bridging online and offline consumer brand audiences. Hybrid role (NYC preferred). 5-8+ years B2B SaaS marketing experience, strong writing skills, AI-native mindset, demand gen chops.