I use the Local harness in vs code with a GitHub copilot max plan. Gives access to the best models from OpenAI and Anthropic (I use 6.1 sol, Astra, and opus 5.5 for most things). The Local harness has granular keep/undo and nice interface in general for reviewing changes, which is important for mission critical code. Unfortunately the copilot team is trying to force the less capable, more YOLO-mode "copilot" harness on people going forward. The community is somewhat getting them to walk that back but they seem to be missing the mark on what differentiates their product until people complain.

I also use chatgpt desktop for some tasks through a chatgpt teams/business plan. I briefly tried to set up codex cloud and it was a mess, not following startup instructions so I gave up.

Gemini 3.7 may have fast token output but holy cow does it waste it on useless output. Several times now I've given it a shot and watched it's reasoning trace go through a bunch of unnecessary / off-target steps relative to what I asked. Don't have this issue with 5.6 models. MAI Code 1.1 is also solid and fast for non-complex tasks.

What is the latency you are seeing with 5.4 no reasoning? And where have you landed for stt and tts solutions?

The tiring part for me is the waiting and/or context switching to fill that time. When agents of this intelligence or better can get you results in seconds instead of minutes we can start thinking single threaded again and it will be more enjoyable.

If you are talking about the Copilot built into vs code, that's not been my recent experience at all. Very capable in agent mode since gpt 5.4 came out.

Especially since gpt 5.5 it's on par with Opus 4.7 or Sonnet.

It's optional, and that's great, because its necessity or benefit is situational.

Agree with this, though I've mostly been using Gemini CLI. Some of the simplest things, like applying a small diff, take many minutes as it loses track of the current file state and takes minutes to figure it out or fail entirely.

I use markdown files in vs code. Supports folding of sections, combined with a few keyword/char patterns that I highlight different colors. Also get code highlighting in properly labeled code sections.

Did you find out what service he was using?

It sounds like an answering service like Rosie (no affiliation): https://heyrosie.com/

Well, pretty much everyone is less valuable than they think!

I've bootstrapped and sold two startups, first time with 5 (!) equal cofounders and second time with 3. I've learned a lot along the way, obviously some of that through mistakes of my own. Have my cofounders been perfect? Heck no -- one lacks the same level of drive, the other is less trustworthy (always multiple irons in the fire kinda guy). But we all have strengths, are all generally better off together, and have the combined skill set to run super lean. Even if you think you can do some things better alone, you can never do it all, and that grind will take quite a toll.

Related: over the years the topic of going into business with some of my best friends has come up, and I always say I would never do that. Running a fast-moving, high stakes business with multiple founders involves a lot of tough conversations and occasional relationship strain. My business partners are business partners first, friends second, and I think that's important to consider if you really value a friendship.