How We Build Effective Agents: Barry Zhang, Anthropic
AI Engineer. Barry Zhang on three rules — don't build an agent when a workflow would do, keep the loop as simple as possible, and "think like your agent" (sit in its context window and notice that it is making decisions in the dark between screenshots). The simplicity argument and the "is this task even worth an agent" checklist are exactly the discipline the article asks for.
What you should get from this
Design simpler agent loops with clear stopping rules, task boundaries and human control points.
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