My Claude Code epiphany

I’ve been messing with AI tools for several years testing everything and staying current. But there’s one tool I kept putting off because it lives in the terminal and looks like something from The Matrix. Every time I thought about learning it, I told myself I would tackle it later.

In the last month, I finally forced myself to spend time playing with it. Like really playing with it. Within ten minutes (maybe seven?) I was rolling.

My mind was blown at how much was possible. And I genuinely felt stupid for waiting so long. This is a story about the gap between "intimidating" and "transformative." And how that gap is much smaller than you think.

Here’s the thing about working in terminal, it seems scary. The black screen, the blinking cursor. The complete absence of friendly buttons to click. But then you just.. do it. And you realize it’s just like chatting in a web browser. It’s not any different. You type a question, you get an answer, and you have a conversation.

The intimidation factor’s almost entirely imagined. The real experience is surprisingly intuitive. One of my team members put it well: "It’s more intuitive than you think it’s going to be."

The barrier to entry isn’t skill or technical knowledge. It’s just the decision to sit down and try. And to be honest, if you get stuck or don’t know what to do next.. you can simply ask Claude Code what to do and it’ll tell you.

Most AI tools help you do things faster. Write an email quicker, summarize a document, generate some ideas.

This is different.

Instead of uploading files or connecting to cloud storage, you are working with everything on your own computer. Your files, your folders, your projects. AI has full context of what you’re working on without you having to explain it every time.

That changes the nature of the experience. You go from AI as assistant to AI as an actual, real collaborator. The tool’s not just responding to prompts, it’s understanding your work environment and helping you navigate it.

I told my team this will completely separate teams in the market. Huge gaps will be made because of tools like this. Not because the technology is magic, but because most people will keep putting it off.

I blocked two hours on my calendar. I figured that was the minimum investment to really understand what I was dealing with. But I didn’t need 2 hours.

The setup took a few minutes. The first useful result happened almost immediately. By the ten minute mark, I was running. Actually doing real work not just experimenting.

The two hours I blocked became two hours of productive output instead of two hours of learning. That’s the difference between tools with steep learning curves and tools that just genuinely get stuff done.

Knowing all of this, I’m certain most folks reading won’t try it this week.

Not because they don’t believe me. But because the same thing that stopped me will stop them. It looks intimidating, there are other priorities, it can wait until next month.

This is fine. Actually, it’s more than fine. It means the people who do try it will have an advantage. For a while there will be a meaningful gap between teams who adopt these tools and teams who keep putting it off.

The question is which side of that gap you want to be on.

Block 2 hours this week. Not to learn, to play.

Pick a tool that’s been sitting on your "I should try that" list. It could be Claude Code or something else entirely. The specific tool matters less than the act of forcing yourself past the mental barrier.

Set a timer for 10 minutes. If you’re not doing something useful by then, just stop. But you probably won’t want to.

The gap between intimidating and transformative is about 10 minutes of forced effort, that’s it.

If you want to start with something even simpler, try this. Take your last draft email and paste it into any AI chat. Ask it to make the tone more direct. Do that once a day for a week. Small actions compound. The goal is not to master AI, the goal is to stop waiting.

Onward & upward,

Drew

P.s. I’m hosting open office hours for 10 non-technical operators this Thursday to show how I’m using Claude Code in my workflow and giving hands-on guidance to get started. Sign up on Luma.