The size of a code base does not determine the size of the model you need. It's much more correlated with the complexity of the problem. I work in a monorepo with millions of lines, no issue; I have a side project with 20k lines, I had to step in and pull it out of non-progress - albeit by asking a single question
reply> But if I'm doing REAL work, that isnt tinkering for fun on a side project
replySorry, but this is either dilettante talk or an unhinged exaggeration - Qwen, DS, GLM and MM are perfectly fine for REAL work, unless you are an overly ambitious vibe coder, but then no model can save you. The Cl hand-holding may feel like something but it won't lead to the completion of real REAL work.
Things are changing so fast that it's easy to let just a little bit of time slip by and think that smaller models are still unreliable.
replyHonestly I feel like most people going "oh but I can't do this without Claude" are just suffering from FOMO. Especially since a lot of metrics are just subjective, you feel like you "have" to use the "best of the best glub shitto v5" model or else you won't be able to produce the best todo app.
reply> Honestly I feel like most people going "oh but I can't do this without Claude" […] or else you won't be able to produce the best todo app.
replyI suspect that's because they're working on projects that are several orders of magnitude more complex and demanding than a "todo app".
It is a very human trait to believe/feel "what I do is special so general rules do not apply". The bias is very strong.
replyThe same way people have opinions on things like for example wines without actually being able to discern them in a blind test.
We humans want to think we can have strong, well founded opinions even when we cannot.
I'm confused about what point you're trying to make. Are you saying that there is no discernable difference in challenge between different software projects – say, between a stereotypical todo app and a physics simulation engine? Or are you saying that most people falsely believe they're working on the latter while really doing the former? Or something else?
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