Claude Code Is Being Dumbed Down

Re:Claude Code Is Being Dumbed Down by dinp on Wednesday February 11, 2026 @07:24PM (#46983218)

I thought I was the only person going crazy by the new default behavior not showing the file names! Please don't expect users to understand your product details and config options in such detail, it was working well before, let it remain. Or at least show some message like "to view file names, do xyz" in the ui for a few days after such a change.

While we're here, another thing that's annoying: the token counter. While claude is working, it read some files, makes an edit, let's say token counter is at 2k tokens, I accept the edit, now it starts counting very fast from 0 to 2k and then shows normal inference speed changes to 2.1k, 2.3k etc. So wanted to confirm: is that just some UI decision and not actually using 2k tokens again? If so, it would be nice to have it off, just continue counting where you left off.

Another thing: is it possible to turn off the words like finagling and similar (I can't remember the spelling of any of them) ?

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Re:Claude Code Is Being Dumbed Down by bostonvaulter2 on Wednesday February 11, 2026 @07:52PM (#46983489)

> Another thing: is it possible to turn off the words like finagling and similar (I can't remember the spelling of any of them) ?

Big +1 on that. I find the names needlessly distracting. I want to just always say a single thing like “thinking”

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Re:Claude Code Is Being Dumbed Down by fabiogaliano on Wednesday February 11, 2026 @08:37PM (#46983823)

I remember they shipped a feature so that’s configurable.

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Re:Claude Code Is Being Dumbed Down by rob on Wednesday February 11, 2026 @08:43PM (#46983866)

You should be able to do something like this:

    "spinnerVerbs": {
      "mode": "replace",
      "verbs": ["Thinking"]
    }

https://code.claude.com/docs/en/settings#available-settings

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Re:Claude Code Is Being Dumbed Down by bostonvaulter2 on Wednesday February 11, 2026 @09:19PM (#46984153)

Thank you for the config and the link, that's very much appreciated!

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Re:Claude Code Is Being Dumbed Down by verelo on Thursday February 12, 2026 @01:30AM (#46985477)

How absurd this is an option, but I’ll be using this config too.

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Re:Claude Code Is Being Dumbed Down by topherhunt on Thursday February 12, 2026 @07:28AM (#46987980)

I replaced my spinner verbs with thought-provoking Yodaese so my claude sessions are constantly making me think about my life decisions. Loving it. https://gist.github.com/topherhunt/b7fa7b915d6ee3a7998363d12...

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Re:Claude Code Is Being Dumbed Down by munksbeer on Thursday February 12, 2026 @12:11PM (#46991519)

> I want to just always say a single thing like “thinking”

As a counterview, I like the whimsical verbs. I'll be sticking with them. But nice to see there is an option.

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Re:Claude Code Is Being Dumbed Down by sincerely on Saturday February 14, 2026 @03:15AM (#47012681)

I don't want my tools to make jokes, I want them to work.

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