4.6 still the GOAT
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A developer on Reddit expressed strong preference for Opus 4.6 over Opus 5, citing 4.6 as the "GOAT" (Greatest Of All Time). They recalled 4.6 significantly improving their AI usage by understanding complex requests and building better solutions. In contrast, Opus 5 was described as requiring extensive hand-holding and intentionally misunderstanding instructions, leading to frustration. The developer successfully completed a task with 4.6 on the first try after struggling with 5, and asked if others still use 4.6 or prefer 5.
I have very fond memories of Opus 4.6 being the greatest model at the perfect inflection point for my AI usage. It felt like overnight I was able to go from reviewing every line of code and worrying that I was going to be grossly misunderstood and destroy a feature to barely having to articulate what I needed to an insanely intelligent partner that would then build something better than I had originally envisioned.
Fast-forward to Opus 5 and I feel like I’m back to having to spoon feed every little step to something that intentionally tries to misunderstand me then gaslights me telling me it did what I asked. I spent hours today trying to build what should be a fairly simple listserv aggregator using Opus 5 and it just wasn’t working. I was getting very frustrated so I decided to switch back to 4.6 and I swear to God it got it right the first try and then it told me why 5 wasn’t able to do it.
I guess I’m just addicted to frontier models and feel like I need to be using the newest thing, but I see no reason to use anything other than 4.6 for routine projects until a newer model proves me wrong. Fable is amazing but difficult to justify for daily use at the cost.
Anyone else still daily driving 4.6? Anyone actually prefer 5? If so, why?