A while ago I challenged myself to build and launch a SaaS in 30 days.
All without any AI assistance. Like a caveman with an Internet connection.
If there's one insight I'd like to share here on, it's this:
👉 Planning is crucial.
If you have a very clear mental model of the software, then writing it down (as code) is trivial. You can type it faster than any LLM with one hand tied behind your back.
But if you're in this constant "wait and see" mindset where you're just hoping to figure things out as you go, then get ready for endless fun.
I'm a very vocal advocate of Emergent Design and I would never argue that one should strive for a perfect mental model.
Perfection does not exist. There are always unknowable unknowns, regardless of scale. If you don't believe me, just try to build a simple calculator app. You'll find yourself asking very weird questions about floating point notation before you know it.
But I am arguing that Emergent Design is not a panacea.
If you're wondering, I did finish the project on time.
Here's how I did it:
Mark Jivko
A while ago I challenged myself to build and launch a SaaS in 30 days.
All without any AI assistance. Like a caveman with an Internet connection.
If there's one insight I'd like to share here on, it's this:
👉 Planning is crucial.
If you have a very clear mental model of the software, then writing it down (as code) is trivial. You can type it faster than any LLM with one hand tied behind your back.
But if you're in this constant "wait and see" mindset where you're just hoping to figure things out as you go, then get ready for endless fun.
I'm a very vocal advocate of Emergent Design and I would never argue that one should strive for a perfect mental model.
Perfection does not exist. There are always unknowable unknowns, regardless of scale. If you don't believe me, just try to build a simple calculator app. You'll find yourself asking very weird questions about floating point notation before you know it.
But I am arguing that Emergent Design is not a panacea.
If you're wondering, I did finish the project on time.
Here's how I did it:
3 months ago | [YT] | 1
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