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don't let the subtitles stop you

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Remember when Parasite was all the rage? I mean the movie. It won a lot of awards, and fair enough too. It's pretty awesome. Now when they were winning those awards the director would always give funny speeches, through a translator (who I think went a bit viral at the time…). Anyway, in one of those speeches there was a line he said that just stuck with me: "once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles you will be introduced to so many more amazing films." I found myself thinking about this the other day. He's obviously talking about foreign-language films. But, if you take the thought and hold it in your mind - close your eyes, spin 3 times then open them again - does it feel that an analogous one-line barrier (excuse the pun) today is that of the CLI agent? No? Fair enough, it's a bit random. Let me explain my thinking:

  • AI is taking over the world (no, not literally)
  • Currently, CLI agents are seen as some of the most powerful tools, notably Claude Code.
  • Although branded as a coding agent, I think CLI agents can be highly effective for non-developers/non-coders, especially the armies of 'semi-technical' knowledge workers (e.g. most jobs with 'analyst' in the title)
  • There is no real technical barrier to using Claude Code, but I wonder to what extent the unfamiliarity of the terminal/CLI is creating an artificial barrier.
  • Bringing it back to Parasite - if you traverse the 'one-inch tall barrier of subtitles' you can find a whole new world of film. Similarly, traversing the one-line barrier of the CLI opens a window into what the future of AI may hold.

Claude Code as an 'analyst agent'

As someone lacking programming know-how, I enjoy stumbling through a bit of vibe coding and generally end up with varied results. However, one area that has quite surprised me is the power of Claude Code to assist in any of my data-related projects/side-quests. I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise; its Python and SQL capabilities alone save hours of my time.

Dan Hock's recent essay 'Vibe Analysis' (which I just read while writing this) is a great exploration of how LLMs may impact analyst work. He notes Cursor, the IDE coding agent, rather than CLI agents. But nevertheless, it does reinforce my thinking that Claude Code is much more than just a coding agent and it stands to reason that non-coders should be using this as well.

What even is a command line interface?

The instructions to install Claude Code (and other tools) are simple and easy to follow. But speaking as someone who had never even heard of a terminal before 2025, it can be an oddly unfamiliar step to make. I won't lie, I probably delayed myself from trying it out just because it was something new. But in today's world, these barriers are easily overcome, especially when comfortable with asking an LLM or watching a quick YouTube explainer. So in the spirit of self-learning, perhaps the question of 'what even is a command line interface' is best copied into ChatGPT.

Just give it a go

The point I'm trying to make is that we have the tools and information at our fingertips. Agency and taste are thrown around a lot these days, but curiosity seems just as important to me. Don't let subtitles stop you from exploring new films. Likewise, don't let that unfamiliar "it's only for developers" terminal stop you from exploring the best AI tools. As of writing, Claude Code is available (for limited use) on their $20 pro plan. Gemini CLI has free daily allowances. You just need to open your terminal and overcome the one-line barrier of "npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code."