Ever tried a new AI tool and thought 'this thing sucks'?

Ever tried a new AI tool and thought "this thing sucks"?

It probably doesn't.

You're just a stranger to it.

I made a TikTok about this once with the title "ChatGPT is not a model."

Some people commented "everyone knows that."

But honestly, most people don't really get what that means in practice.

ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, these are products, not models.

If you query the raw model through the API, it behaves completely different.

Way less limited, way less hand-holding.

The products feel like magic because there's a ton of stuff happening between your prompt and the actual model.

Memory, system prompts, rewritten inputs, retrieval systems.

All that engineering makes the experience smooth.

I've used Claude every day for months now.

My whole life is basically in there.

Every answer takes my context into account, like my projects, my preferences, how I work.

So when I try switching to competitors, the results feel terrible.

Not because their models are bad.

Because I'm starting from zero context.

It's like comparing a friend who knows you vs a stranger you just met.

Of course the stranger sounds dumber.

This is why benchmarks are kind of useless for regular users.

They measure raw capability in a vacuum.

But your actual experience depends on the tool around the model.

Claude Code isn't popular because Opus is the best model out there.

It's popular because of the interface and the system prompt doing most of the work before you even hit enter.

So before you blame the model, check your prompt first.

Then check your context.

Then look at how much the tool is helping you without you noticing.

After all that, you've earned the right to complain properly.

Have you ever switched AI tools and felt like you got dumber overnight?