As per Anthropic support (for Mac and Linux respectively) -

  $ echo 'export ANTHROPIC_EFFORT="high"' >> ~/.zshrc source ~/.zshrc
  $ echo 'export ANTHROPIC_EFFORT="high"' >> ~/.bashrc source ~/.bashrc

I prefer settings.json (VSCode) -

  "claudeCode.environmentVariables": [
    { "name": "ANTHROPIC_MODEL", "value": "claude-opus-4-6" },
    { "name": "CLAUDE_CODE_EFFORT_LEVEL", "value": "high" }
  ], ...

Or the 2026 version: 'Hey Claude set your thinking level to high.'

@dworks: Good insights. Thanks!

If you add a dialectic between Opus 4.5 and GPT 5.2 (not the Codex variant), your workflow - which I use as well, albeit slightly differently [1] - may work even better.

This dialectic also has the happy side-effect of being fairly token efficient.

IME, Claude Code employs much better CLI tooling+sandboxing when implementing while GPT 5.2 does excellent multifaceted critique even in complex situations.

[1]

- spec requirement / iterate spec until dialectic is exhausted, then markdown

- plan / iterate plan until dialectic is exhausted, then markdown

- implement / curl-test + manual test / code review until dialectic is exhausted

- update previous repo context checkpoint (plus README.md and AGENTS.md) in markdown

adding another external model/agent is exactly what I have been planning as the next step. in fact i already paste the implementation and test summaries into chatgpt, and it is extremely helpful in hardening requirements, making them more extensible, or picking up gaps between the implementations and the initial specs. it would be very useful to have this in the workflow itself, rather than the coding agent reviewing its own work - there is a sense that it is getting tunnel visioned.

i agree that CC seems like a better harness, but I think GPT is a better model. So I will keep it all inside the Codex VSCode plugin workflow.

Well put.

More broadly - the United Kingdom exports services worth £500+ billion each year (versus goods worth £400 billion or so).

And these service exports have grown 6-7% on average for the past decade and show no signs of slowing down.

Good exports have flatlined but certainly not collapsed.

Source: ONS UK trade, August 2025 - https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/balanceofpay...

Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan

Nice catch. It's definitely Baikonur.

Thanks :)

Very astute.

May I suggest replacing Commercial Radio with Cryptography for the 1930's (between the Wars)

Very insightful post.

Just want to add that trying to analyse away any fear, uncertainty, and doubt one feels is a mugs game.

If you find something you enjoy working on, keep doing it.

If you don't, still keep doing stuff and enjoy the act of "doing stuff".

To pause is the little death that leads to total obliteration (with apologies to Frank Herbert)