(2025-11-03) Ratchisky Shipper Everyone Should Be Using Claude Code More

Lenny Rachitsky: Everyone should be using Claude Code more. Ever since my chat with Dan Shipper, I couldn’t stop thinking about his hot take that Claude Code was the most underrated AI tool for non-technical people. A few weeks ago, I finally started playing around with it, and holy sht, we’ve all been sleeping on Claude Code. The key is to forget that it’s called Claude Code and instead think of it as Claude Local or Claude Agent.*

Since it’s running locally, it can handle huge files, run much longer than the cloud-based Claude/ChatGPT/Gemini chatbots, and it’s fast and versatile. Claude Code is basically Claude with even more powers.

To inspire your own ideas, I’ve collected 50 of my favorite and most creative ways non-technical people are using Claude Code in their work and life.

Open your Terminal app

• Install Claude Code
• On a Mac, run this command: curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash
• Launch Claude Code: claude

If you run into any trouble, just ask your favorite chatbot for help. Or better yet, install Warp (free with your newsletter subscription!), which replaces your local terminal app and automagically solves any issues you encounter trying to install stuff like Claude Code. That’s how I solved the problems I ran into, and I highly recommend you do the same.

Five ways I’ve been using Claude Code this month

• 1. Clearing space on my computer
• 2. Improving the image quality of screenshots
• 3. Downloading YouTube videos
• 4. Downloading all of the images embedded inside a Google Doc
• 5. Picking a random raffle winner from a Google Sheet of submissions

50 creative ways non-technical people are using Claude Code

1. Brainstorming domain names

2. Finding high-quality leads, from Jeff Lindquist
“I literally just typed: look at what I’m building and identify the top 5 companies in my area that would be good for a pilot for this.

3. Same as above, but instead, scraping GitHub repos, from Sergei Zotov
“My product masks sensitive data in code assistant queries. So Claude Code proposed the idea to find potential leads in the GitHub repos, by searching for the actual sensitive values in them

4. Noticing when you’re avoiding conflict, from Dan Shipper
“I download all of my meeting recordings, put them in a folder, and ask Claude Code to tell me all of the times I’ve subtly avoided conflict.”

5. Figuring out why your computer is running slow, from Anthony Roux
“I sometimes use Claude Code for system diagnostics when my Mac slows down.

6. Cleaning up messy invoice files

7. Organizing files and folders across your computer

8. Building a slide for your child, from John Conneely
“I built my own DIY subagent last week to help me build a slide tower for my son 😀”

9. Organizing scattered thoughts, from Helen Lee Kupp
“I’m a mom who voice-records ideas during morning stroller walks, not a developer. The terminal interface? Overwhelming at first. The word ‘Code’ . . . but what if I don’t have a ‘coding project’? After 3 weeks of struggling to organize my scattered thoughts, I tried it anyway. And discovered something wild: Claude Code isn’t about coding at all. It’s about having an AI that manages your entire process—whatever the goal might be.

9. Writing a job description

11. Synthesizing transcripts of calls with customers

12. Improving your writing, from Teresa Torres
“I now write all of my content with Claude Code in VS Code. We iterate on an outline, it helps me improve the hook, it conducts research for me and adds citations to my outline, and it reviews and gives feedback on each section as I write. It has completely changed the way I write.” [Much more on Teresa’s process here]

13. Working with audio files

14. Creating “self-driving” documentation

15. Creating a self-improving feedback loop, from Gang Rui
“I created a slash command that analyzes my journal entries + Git commits (for the past 7 days; usually I use this weekly), spots gaps between what I said vs. did, and suggests system improvements. Like having a COO that learns from my patterns.”

16. Getting inspiration from competitors’ ads

17. Automatically creating changelogs

18. Building presentations

19. Doing social media research

20. Roadmapping

And all kinds of stuff:

For more, here are some of my favorite much-more-advanced use cases:

Refining your backlog in Linear.app

Managing user research, concepts, test results, and strategy

Building a command center for your attention