On prototyping

This is something of a catch-all post, but about prototyping and simplicity. Whenever I start writing a post about this, I quickly learn it will require a lot of work. So, for now: "Be scrappy" should not mean "do the first thing that comes to mind." And, in particular, you should have an explicit idea of (i) how your system is composed from subsystems and (ii) what your basic data objects are. Spending hours thinking about your most important data models is really valuable. Even in an AI-accelerated world. That time pays for itself many times over faster than we think. Another application of (1): It's tempting to move fast by ignoring encapsulation, perhaps by taking a server response and using it directly in the front end without translating it into a domain object. This leads to either (i) failing at building anything at all or (ii) building the thing you want, but badly. Some solutions feel more general than others in a way that is, upon inspection, illusory. So, for example, you…