232: We Fired the Tools: No Ralph Wiggum, No Training Wheels, Just Agents

This week, Robbie and Adam talk winter storms, snow blowers, and autonomous yard work before diving into the real topic: AI agents gone wild. They debate why Ralph Wiggum loops don't actually work, whether context pollution is killing productivity, the rise and fall of MCP servers and skills, and why vanilla Claude might be the only tool you actually need. Along the way, they cover anchor positioning failures, Stranger Things hot takes, and why small distilleries are just like indie startups.

In this episode:

• (00:00) - Intro

• (01:43) - Whiskey rating & review: Old Forester Statesman

• (09:15) - Winter storm Fern, snow blowers, and autonomous lawn care

• (11:55) - Fixing Swach: Intel vs ARM builds and Rosetta translation hell

• (18:55) - Why AI workflows feel inconsistent and token-hungry

• (20:58) - Open Code Black, burning tokens, and hitting limits fast

• (26:51) - Claude max, Warp subscriptions, and the cost of unlimited AI

• (29:02) - The swipe gesture task no LLM can finish

• (31:26) - Why view transitions and web components confuse AI

• (35:15) - Deleting MCP servers, skills, and going back to vanilla Claude

• (37:22) - Ember MCP skills and teaching AI modern frameworks

• (40:58) - Shopify's agent MDs, MCP servers, and CI failure bots

• (42:48) - Why context pollution makes AI dumber

• (46:45) - Ralph Wiggum loops: brute force until art appears

• (48:50) - Running Claude inside Warp and why it's tight

• (52:57) - Code mods, observables, and iterative AI workflows

• (54:46) - CascadiaJS 2025: emceeing, vibes, and smaller conferences

• (57:12) - Bouncy scroll is finally coming to Chrome

• (58:26) - The FLIP technique, anchor positioning, and morphing animations

• (01:00:10) - Why anchor positioning failed at Shopify

• (01:05:00) - Code debt vs code value: when does resilience become a burden?

• (01:08:00) - Stranger Things finale, Fallout season 2, and distillery vibes

Links

• Old Forester Statesman: https://www.oldforester.com/

• Kingsman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsman_(franchise)

• Swach: https://www.swach.io/

• Opencode: https://opencode.ai/

• Claude: https://claude.ai/

• Warp: https://www.warp.dev/

• Cursor: https://www.cursor.com/

• Copilot: https://github.com/features/copilot

• Oh My Opencode: https://github.com/code-yeongyu/oh-my-opencode

• GSD (Get Shit Done): https://github.com/PriNova/Code-Prompter

• MCP (Model Context Protocol): https://modelcontextprotocol.io/

• Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/

• Shopify: https://www.shopify.com/

• Ember: https://emberjs.com/

• React: https://react.dev/

• TypeScript: https://www.typescriptlang.org/

• CSS Anchor Positioning: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/CSS_anchor_positioning

• FLIP Technique: https://aerotwist.com/blog/flip-your-animations/

• View Transitions API: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/View_Transitions_API

• Floating UI: https://floating-ui.com/

• Shepherd: https://shepherdjs.dev/

• Ember Animated: https://github.com/ember-animation/ember-animated

• CascadiaJS: https://cascadiajs.com/

• Render ATL: https://www.renderatl.com/

• React Miami: https://www.reactmiami.com/

• Big Sky Dev Con: https://bigskydevcon.com/

• Stranger Things: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_Things

• Fallout: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallout_(American_TV_series)

• Two Bar Spirits: https://www.twobarspirits.com/

Connect with the hosts

• Robbie Wagner: https://x.com/RobbieWagner

• Chuck Carpenter: https://x.com/chuckcarpenter

• Adam Argyle: https://x.com/argyleink

Subscribe and stay in touch

• Website: https://whiskey.fm

• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/whiskey-web-and-whatnot/id1552776603

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/19jiuHAqzeKnkleQUpZxDf

• Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1552776603

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhiskeyWebAndWhatnot

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