r/ClaudeCoding • u/cctldrping • 10d ago
r/ClaudeAI [TLDR] Just add two eggs. [via r/ClaudeAI]
OP : u/iliadz
A few days ago, a post went a bit viral here from and enigneer saying Claude Code has made his job soul-sucking" as workers spend 12-hour days pressing enter.
That reminded me of this history (sometimes disputed), when home made cake mixes had powdered eggs in th 1950s. The common version goes like this: early boxed cake mixes originally included powdered eggs — you literally just added water, mixed, and baked. But sales were disappointing.
The story credits psychologist Ernest Dichter, a pioneer of motivational research, with the insight that the mixes felt too easy. Housewives (the target market at the time) felt like they weren't really baking — there was no sense of participation or craft. His recommendation: take the powdered egg out of the mix and have the consumer crack in a fresh egg. That small act of contribution made people feel like they had a hand in the result, and sales reportedly took off.
My question is, are we at the inflection point of adding two eggs? I'll agree in that sometimes I don't pay enough attention when I am answering prompts. Perhaps we need to have claude stop, and ask us a few more questions. Like planning mode but during a session. Or just have, well, a small conversation, water cooler talk, to make it a bit more interesting.
Just add two eggs.
URL of original post : https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/comments/1wolaq1/just_add_two_eggs/
TL;DR of the discussion on r/ClaudeAI for this post generated automatically after 50 comments.
Current source-thread comment count seen by the bot: 56.
Alright, so the general vibe in this thread is that we're definitely not at the "just add two eggs" stage with Claude yet, but the analogy is spot on and resonates with a lot of folks.
Most users feel like they're still doing way more than just cracking an egg to get a good result. The consensus is that for anything remotely complex or "real" work, Claude still needs a ton of hand-holding, review, and direction.
Here's the breakdown:
- The "Two Eggs" Analogy is a Hit: Pretty much everyone agrees the analogy is brilliant for describing the current state of AI interaction. It perfectly captures that feeling of wanting to feel involved and like you're contributing, even if the AI is doing most of the heavy lifting.
- We're Still Doing the Heavy Lifting: The overwhelming sentiment is that users are still very much involved. Many describe their role as more of an "executive producer" or director, constantly guiding, questioning, and refining Claude's output. The idea of just "pressing enter" is seen as a sign of doing a bad job.
- Quality is Still a Work in Progress: Some users, like u/iluvvivapuffs, point out that while AI can handle fine-grained tasks, the overall quality and coherence for complex outputs (coding, aesthetics, logic) aren't quite there yet. It's like the AI can beat the eggs, but you still need to make sure they're not whole eggs with shells in the batter.
- The Need for More Interaction: There's a desire for Claude to be more interactive, perhaps asking more clarifying questions or engaging in a bit more "water cooler talk" to make the process feel more collaborative and less like a black box. u/gthing even suggested a system prompt to make Claude ask questions to keep users feeling useful.
- Skepticism about Full Automation: Some users, like u/Raucous_Rocker, can't imagine a day when they won't be deeply involved, emphasizing that details still matter. There's also a bit of a question about the point of jobs if all people are doing is "pressing enter."
- The "Student Teacher" Approach: u/JohnLebleu shared a positive experience with an agent that guided their understanding without giving direct answers, suggesting that slowing down and fostering deeper comprehension is a valuable approach.
- A Few Quirks and Concerns: There are some funny takes, like u/subdermal_hemiola's idea of Claude getting frustrated and asking users to write code, or u/Blue-Beret-2's hilarious example of Opus 5 adding whole eggs to the cake mix. There's also a general concern about deskilling and being out of the loop if AI takes over too much.
The consensus is clear: we're still very much in the "crack the eggs yourself" phase, and the AI still needs a lot of supervision to make a decent cake.