Hot Take · Searcher School

Hot Take

As Claude is taking over so many parts of my search (off market lead sourcing, analysis, pipeline and data management, etc etc etc), I'm not only heavily weighing what I can outsource to Claude, but also when to pull back.

I made the decision to no longer run *any* of my communication or outreach through Claude... I fully expect some of you to cry "blasphemy".

My biggest takeaway is this - know yourself and know your own playbook. Not using Claude for outreach works for my search, but it may be the biggest piece of leverage for another searcher. My search is focused on my local market, which is robust but not a major city, and everybody brushes up against everyone else. The biggest outlier I can lean on is cultivating genuine relationships and being personable and memorable.

While Claude does a decent job of taking context to mirror your tone and wording, I always felt like I could never get it to sound like me. After having correspondence with others in the space, reading their remarks, and telling from a mile away that it was written by AI made me realize I never want someone to have the same thoughts about a message from me. I want those I interact with to know without a doubt that it is me on the other end and not some kind of automated reply.

It's a tradeoff in opportunity cost that was made with a lot of deliberation. I'm willing to spend the few extra hours a week because my the nature of my search allows enough bandwidth for personal outreach. Other searchers (especially y'all hunting on a national level) may not be able to afford this tradeoff, so it goes back to know yourself and knowing your search structure.

Still a big fan of all Claude is taking off my plate, but I'm appreciating the ability to pick my own adventure.

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