When a Helper Is Worth It (and What It Costs)

In short

The empty desk has a price: the helper starts from zero and rebuilds everything.
The rule: looks at a lot, hands back little → delegate.
Small task → do it in the conversation: the setup would cost more than the work.
Helpers can start on their own: if your usage looks odd, check there first.

The cost of the empty desk

In the lesson on costs you learned that within a session, a discount builds up on everything already said. A helper doesn't get that: it starts from zero, and from zero it has to catch up on what it's doing.

So delegating is never free. On a small task, getting the helper up to speed costs more than the work you gave it. On a big one, the desk space it saves you is worth far more.

The rule, in one line

A lot to look through, little to report back? Delegate.

Yes: searching for something inside a mountain of documents. It reads a hundred things, tells you one line.
Yes: getting a sense of how a folder you don't know is organized.
Yes: a quality check on finished work — it looks at everything, tells you what's off.
No: a precise edit to a file you already have open in front of you. You already have the context, delegating it is just an extra round trip.
No: anything that needs the whole thread of the conversation. The helper doesn't have that thread.

Give the helper the right engine

This is chapter 3 again, and it counts double here: searching isn't understanding. A helper that just has to dig through material doesn't need the most capable model — if anything, it's the textbook case for the fast, cheap one.

It's one of the most concrete ways to cut the bill without losing any quality: the big engine stays on your conversation, where the decisions get made, and the helpers run light.

Careful: they can start on their own too

You're not always the one sending them off. If Claude decides a task should be delegated, the helper starts on its own — and each one burns its own budget.

It's one of the most common causes of costs that seem unjustified: a session that looks quiet on the surface with three helpers working behind the scenes. If the numbers don't add up, that's the first place to look.

Helper or new session?

Fair question: if the point is a clean desk, why not just open a new session?

The difference is where the result ends up. The helper comes back into your conversation, and what it found feeds straight into the work in progress. A new session stays its own separate world, and you're the bridge between the two, copy-pasting.

So: if you need the result here, helper. If you're doing something unrelated, new session.

What's next

Helpers each work on their own and don't talk to each other. But there's also a level above that, where they actually do talk to each other. In the next lesson: teams — and why you almost never need them.

Did you get it?

Two minutes, no grade. Trying to answer — even getting it wrong — cements the concepts far more than rereading. Not in the mood? Skip it: the lesson still counts as complete.

Why does a sub-agent cost more than it looks like it should?

What is the rule of thumb for deciding whether to delegate?

You notice a session is burning through far more than expected. What do you check?

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