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.

We discuss:

1. How Claude Code grew from a quick hack to 4% of public GitHub commits, with daily active users doubling last month

2. The counterintuitive product principles that drove Claude Code’s success

3. Why Boris believes coding is “solved”

4. The latent demand that shaped Claude Code and Cowork

5. Practical tips for getting the most out of Claude Code and Cowork

6. How underfunding teams and giving them unlimited tokens leads to better AI products

7. Why Boris briefly left Anthropic for Cursor, then returned after just two weeks

8. Three principles Boris shares with every new team member

Brought to you by:

DX—The developer intelligence platform designed by leading researchers

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Where to find Boris Cherny:

• X: https://x.com/bcherny

• 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 podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

My biggest takeaways from this conversation:...