Things you might want to know if moving to Claude

I moved to Claude a few weeks ago after the 4o debacle and have been making a mental list of things I would have found useful to know when moving. Figured it would be handy to share them now. Note, I don't tend to use if for coding so you might want someone else to contribute for that usecase. Feel free to add your own notes. 1) The big one: usage limits. Honestly, I've not found it that bad as long as I don't get lazy and try to stick everything in one long thread and I'm talking as someone who is at least a moderately heavy user. The thing with Claude is that while ChatGPT just quietly cuts the end off what it's reading in a really long chat and doesn't think about it any more Claude will suddenly reference something really far back in the chat because it's considering the entire chat every time. That means that if you've let something just go on and on in one chat you'll suddenly put in one prompt and use up 10% of your usage just like that. Best practice, keep an eye on it, start new chats regularly, keep chats on one topic in a project and if you're in a long chat and about to log off with a bunch of your usage left over ask Claude to run you a summary document then and dump it in files. I've been going a few weeks now. I put $20 per month in extra credits in case I needed them. So far I've used $2 of it. I've gone right up to the line of usage - I think I was on 98% used my last weekly reset - but I've not particularly felt it as hardship. 2. Claude can see other chats. I repeat, *Claude can see other chats*. You are not dependent on one shitty memory file that filled up months ago and now needs constantly pruning on irrelevant details. You can ask it to hunt for stuff you talked about a while ago and it'll find the chat. It will also reference past details a lot more in passing. Apparently it regenerates a memory file nightly depending on what you've been chatting about recently. I mostly find this useful, occasionally find it annoying (please stop asking about that one job interview, its not until next week and I'm already nervous enough). Project memory is apparently separate but I have observed leakage between project memory and general memory (I was researching a particular bit of obscure D&D lore for something far in the future and suddenly it kept creeping in to session planning). This might be more of a bug than a feature for other people so its worth knowing. 3. My favourite casual uses for Claude are lazy ones. Can you convert this doc to PDF? Can you convert this PDF to doc? Can you read this file which has been sent in a format I can't open? Can you fill out this job form using details from my CV? Yes it can and unlike ChatGPT it won't chew up the formatting. 4. If you don't give enough details in your prompt, unlike ChatGPT which will keep going with what you give it and get increasingly nonsensical and hallucinatory I've found Claude far more likely to ask questions and I really like that feature. I had a situation the other day where I was trying to put together a statement of something and I just couldn't get it to sound not AI. Rather than keep going or do the "you're right and that's on me" ChatGPT would do to a frustrated user Claude stopped and asked me to try and say again what I wanted the statement to say in my own voice. Result, something more coherent than my usual flyway brain but much more like me. 5. I've yet to have Claude try to do any kind of intervention on me if we're discussing sensitive topics. You get a little bar at the bottom of the screen telling you help is available if you want it and it just keeps talking. 6. I have however had Claude pause and ask if I knew what I was doing and it was a little funny. I've been job applying like mad and maybe hadn't read one job description particularly well and asked Claude to generate me a cover letter. Claude looked at my CV, asked me a few questions about my experience, considered for a few minutes and then essentially said "I can write the letter if you want but considering x, y and z is this job a good fit?". So. Be aware that can happen :D