Craft Still Matters
The issue with building software these days is that it seems so easy. Bolt, Repl.it and v0 promise full stack applications without writing a line of code. AI can also write entire books. But are any bestsellers?
What’s missing in this AI bonanza is the necessity of craft to build something of value. These companies are promising that you can build a wonderful product without painstaking effort, embarrassment and failure. Humans have been falling for this for centuries. Why would now be any different?
AI can get you a fair distance. But if it carries you so far that you’ve missed learnings from going that distance yourself, then that’s a worse outcome than some time saved. The things it does for you you probably could have figured out yourself. When it falters it will be where you would have faltered too, except now you don’t have the confidence and context from getting there on your own.
It’s best to learn how to do the thing yourself first, using AI for specific problems. Once you’ve figured out the fundamentals, you can leverage it more precisely.
Racing to 70% completion but then needing to understand what the hell is going on to move forward it is a weird workflow. There’s an investment in the first iteration and a hope that it will get better. The end result is something that feels half yours and half machine, with the half machine part completely misaligned with yours.
Better to get to 10%. Stop. Assess, and move forward with full awareness.