Claude Code's product chief says people have serious FOMO over AI's relentless pace - Business Insider

Cat Wu, Anthropic's head of product for Claude Code and Cowork, has identified the latest tech affliction: 'FOMO over AI's relentless pace.' Yes, apparently staring at Claude 4.5 and wondering if Claude 5 will solve P vs NP while you sleep is the new millennial anxiety. Wu told Business Insider that 'users stress about using the latest version instantly,' which seems like a problem Anthropic could solve by not releasing a new Claude every 38 seconds. But then how would they keep the hype-fed hamster wheel spinning? Meanwhile, actual problems like 'does Claude Code ghost my PRs for 24 minutes at a time?' go unmentioned.

Wu claims that the FOMO is legitimate because 'with AI, every release materially changes what you can do.' True — last week you could generate a flawlessly formatted email; now you can generate a seven-legged table design sketch. Wu is selling the vision of users 'rethinking entire projects' each time a new checkpoint drops, which is code for 'our metrics show people opening the playground three times a day and closing it in frustration.' The soothing solution offered is 'designed experimentation windows,' which is corporate for 'try to chill out, please stop refreshing the model picker.'

This interview is peak Anthropic theatre. On one hand, they read aloud from the 'humans deserve reflective adoption' liturgy. On the other hand, each model drop is basically a thumb on the economy's fast-forward button. Wu wants 'healthy adoption over hype adoption,' conveniently ignoring that Anthropic funds that adoption dialogue by spending however many millions training the 46-model-line Monte Carlo that fuels the hype. Nobody gets FOMO from a glass of water. You get FOMO from an industry that makes yesterday's demigod toolkit today's barely usable bin selection. So clutch your Claude Code window close, pal — every part of you will be scared in a fortnight anyway.