People keep asking for this w/ Codex, too, and I really regret that both labs seem inclined to listen.
If you ask a thinking/research type question in 'Chat' versus 'Work' mode in these products -- say, something complex about politics, or do a multiturn business strategy, or want to work thru a new concept, you get very different answers.
The harness, steering, etc. in the chat/reasoning products is so much better for this type of question (that doesn't require code as a primary substrate).
Even as someone who mainlines like, 7 coding agents at all times, I regret that productivity fever will mean the regression of think-first-act-later AI UX.
I see Work as the mode where you can generate and edit files without manual intervention.
I tell chat to recommend me some books based on some of my favourites. Chat does it. I read some of them, liked some, disliked few. I give chat that information, it recommends me based on those, now I don't know which of the entries are relevant or not.
I don't want lock-in, so I try my best to tell it to generate copy-able MD syntax that I have to manually paste to an editor.
With Work mode, I tell the model to just maintain an append only markdown file, where it writes "still recommended", "not recommended any more", etc. beside titles. It does this after each turn.
This is just an example. Work - I see it as a mode that can maintain, update, and edit a file.
Sherveen · · focus · HN ↗
If you ask a thinking/research type question in 'Chat' versus 'Work' mode in these products -- say, something complex about politics, or do a multiturn business strategy, or want to work thru a new concept, you get very different answers.
The harness, steering, etc. in the chat/reasoning products is so much better for this type of question (that doesn't require code as a primary substrate).
Even as someone who mainlines like, 7 coding agents at all times, I regret that productivity fever will mean the regression of think-first-act-later AI UX.
__rito__ · · focus · HN ↗
I tell chat to recommend me some books based on some of my favourites. Chat does it. I read some of them, liked some, disliked few. I give chat that information, it recommends me based on those, now I don't know which of the entries are relevant or not.
I don't want lock-in, so I try my best to tell it to generate copy-able MD syntax that I have to manually paste to an editor.
With Work mode, I tell the model to just maintain an append only markdown file, where it writes "still recommended", "not recommended any more", etc. beside titles. It does this after each turn.
This is just an example. Work - I see it as a mode that can maintain, update, and edit a file.
It's very convenient.