Everything I Got Wrong About Building with AI (And What I Learned)

# Everything I Got Wrong About Building with AI (And What I Learned)

After extensive building with AI, I can see my early mistakes clearly.

Reality: AI produces unlimited output. Understanding is the constraint now. Optimize for understanding, not speed.

Reality: Documentation is often the most valuable output. Code is regenerable. Context is not.

Reality: Prompts encode thinking. They're intellectual property worth protecting. Version them. Document them.

Reality: AI changed the constraints. Match process to actual constraints, not historical ones.

Reality: Small teams with AI accomplish what large teams did before. Reduce coordination overhead.

Reality: Context decay is fast. Capture decisions when made. 30 seconds now beats 30 minutes of archaeology later.