Boris Cherny is the creator and head of Claude Code at Anthropic. What began as a simple terminal-based prototype just a year ago has transformed the role of software engineering and is increasingly transforming all professional work.
Listen on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts
We discuss:
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How Claude Code grew from a quick hack to 4% of public GitHub commits, with daily active users doubling last month
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The counterintuitive product principles that drove Claude Code’s success
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Why Boris believes coding is “solved”
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The latent demand that shaped Claude Code and Cowork
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Practical tips for getting the most out of Claude Code and Cowork
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How underfunding teams and giving them unlimited tokens leads to better AI products
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Why Boris briefly left Anthropic for Cursor, then returned after just two weeks
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Three principles Boris shares with every new team member
Brought to you by:
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Where to find Boris Cherny:
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bcherny
• Website: https://borischerny.com
Referenced:
• Cursor: https://cursor.com
• The rise of Cursor: The $300M ARR AI tool that engineers can’t stop using | Michael Truell (co-founder and CEO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-rise-of-cursor-michael-truell
• Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com
• Anthropic’s CPO on what comes next | Mike Krieger (co-founder of Instagram): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/anthropics-cpo-heres-what-comes-next
• Claude Code Is the Inflection Point: https://newsletter.semianalysis.com/p/claude-code-is-the-inflection-point
• Spotify says its best developers haven’t written a line of code since December, thanks to AI: https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/12/spotify-says-its-best-developers-havent-written-a-line-of-code-since-december-thanks-to-ai/
• Anthropic co-founder on quitting OpenAI, AGI predictions, $100M talent wars, 20% unemployment, and the nightmare scenarios keeping him up at night | Ben Mann: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/anthropic-co-founder-benjamin-mann
• Haiku: https://www.anthropic.com/claude/haiku
• Sonnet: https://www.anthropic.com/claude/sonnet
• Opus: https://www.anthropic.com/claude/opus
• Jenny Wen on X: https://x.com/jenny_wen
• Johannes Gutenberg: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Gutenberg
• Anthropic jobs: https://www.anthropic.com/careers/jobs
• Lenny’s AI poll post on X: https://x.com/lennysan/status/2020266745722991051
• Fiona Fung on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fionafung
• Brandon Kurkela on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bkurkela
• Cowork: https://www.anthropic.com/webinars/future-of-ai-at-work-introducing-cowork
• Chris Olah on X: https://x.com/ch402
• The Bitter Lesson: http://www.incompleteideas.net/IncIdeas/BitterLesson.html
• 3 Body Problem on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81024821
• Acquired podcast: https://www.acquired.fm
• Acquired: The Complete History & Strategy of Nintendo: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/nintendo
Recommended books:
• Programming TypeScript: Making Your JavaScript Applications Scale: https://www.amazon.com/Programming-TypeScript-Making-JavaScript-Applications/dp/1492037656
• Functional Programming in Scala: https://www.amazon.com/Functional-Programming-Second-Michael-Pilquist-ebook/dp/B0C4LX999T
• Accelerando: https://www.amazon.com/Accelerando-Singularity-Charles-Stross/dp/0441014151
• Wandering Earth: https://www.amazon.com/Wandering-Earth-Cixin-Liu/dp/1250796849
• The Three-Body Problem: https://www.amazon.com/Three-Body-Problem-Cixin-Liu/dp/0765382032
• A Fire Upon the Deep: https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Upon-Deep-Zones-Thought/dp/0812515285
• A Deepness in the Sky: https://www.amazon.com/Deepness-Sky-Zones-Thought/dp/0812536355
Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [email protected].
Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.