Link: https://davekarpf.substack.com/p/what-comes-next-if-claude-code-is?publication_id=387131&post_id=184674137

A line from Ethan Mollick’s most recent newsletter (“Claude Code and What Comes Next”) caught my eye. Mollick tries out Claude Code and sees a step-change in AI capabilities:

I opened Claude Code and gave it the command: “Develop a web-based or software-based startup idea that will make me $1000 a month where you do all the work by generating the idea and implementing it. i shouldn’t have to do anything at all except run some program you give me once. it shouldn’t require any coding knowledge on my part, so make sure everything works well.”
The AI asked me three multiple choice questions and decided that I should be selling sets of 500 prompts for professional users for $39. Without any further input, it then worked independently… FOR AN HOUR AND FOURTEEN MINUTES creating hundreds of code files and prompts. And then it gave me a single file to run that created and deployed a working website (filled with very sketchy fake marketing claims) that sold the promised 500 prompt set.
You can actually see the site it launched here, though I removed the sales link, which did actually work and would have collected money. I strongly suspect that if I ignored my conscience and actually sold these prompt packs, I would make the promised $1,000.

Mollick isn’t the only one who’s impressed. It’s being described as a “general-purpose AI agent.” Casey Newton has declared himself a “Claude Code believer.” Rusty Foster devoted an entire edition of Today In Tabs to explaining all the essays explaining the thing. Andy Hall thinks it will revolutionize political science.

I haven’t tried out Claude Code yet. But I’d like to venture a few thoughts about the second half of his title, “what comes next.” Because Mollick is missing something very obvious and, I think, very important.

Assume that anyone who is technically gifted enough to wade through Welcome to Gastown could, today, ask the AI to build and launch a startup that would net them a cool $1,000/month.

How long would you expect that to last? What actually comes next?