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- 🧙🏼 Direction > Speed
Direction > Speed
Why you use AI is more important than how
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I've been building a data product these last weeks, using vibe coding intensely to help me out.
It is astonishing how good Claude Opus 4.5 is at taking my instructions and weaving them into something useful. I use it exclusively for my most difficult coding tasks now.
On Claude's Pro plan ($20/mo), I get 3-4 prompts with the model before hitting a 5 hour rate limit.
My first impulse when I noticed this was to go straight back to Claude Max ($100/mo) to get more usage.
But then I figured: I could use the time in between to plan my next move instead. After all, Opus can handle massive context now; I could pile up tasks in a note and fire it off once my limit resets.
I expected my planning would get better. I just didn't realise how much better, or what a difference it would make to the project.
During the downtime, I would write down my next tasks. And then, I would get all kinds of realizations:
I don’t actually need this data point.
I’m over-complicating the table structure.
I can use an API I already pay for.
The categorization is accurate, but not user-friendly.
I’m solving a problem users don’t have.
My notes ended up being much more than just the next task for the AI. They became a clear direction of where I’m taking the product.
And when Claude gets detailed instructions grounded in clear direction, you really feel the horsepower.
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH ZENCODER
Most teams struggle to ship fast in a world of shifting requirements, large codebases, and unpredictable AI tools.
Zenflow brings structure and multi-agent orchestration to modern engineering. It gives you a spec-driven workflow powered by multi-agent orchestration, built-in verification, and parallel execution.
Your specs become executable plans
Agents collaborate on coding, testing and review
Every output is validated before it hits your repo
Teams use it to eliminate rework, avoid regressions, and ship features faster.
Speed is cheap now. Judgment isn’t.
For simple tasks, like translating a document, I don't need to plan; I can make do with one word and a photo—AI can read my intent.
But when I venture into complex work, I find that the time spent planning pays high dividends.
I've tried it the other way: I keep prompting, and the AI keeps implementing. All the while, AI sounds like it has full control of what you're creating.
But I often find I end up having to do a lot of rework because my instructions weren’t specific enough or, in the worst case, misguided.
The issue with that type of speed is my critical thinking can't keep up.
While I believe this goes for any type of AI usage, this is most obvious for me in the case of vibe coding, an activity that feels like zooming through the woods on a four-wheeler at 50mph. You see the trees, the leaves, and the path directly ahead of you. But because you are moving so fast, it's easy to lose track of the forest.
Even if AI is doing the coding, I am the one who holds the vision of what I’m creating. In the case of the data product I’m building, I’m the one who knows the problem it is designed to solve. When I’m in the trenches of vibe coding, I often lose that perspective.
The rate limit has become the forced pause I didn't know I needed. A break to think deeply about what I want to create and refine the details needed to solve the problem well.
It's making me faster because I know exactly in which direction I'm going.
I have a friend who plays guitar professionally. We were at a pre-party once, and he was playing for us—absolutely ripping.
Another friend, who had just met him, sat there watching, completely mesmerized.
In a quiet moment, this friend mentioned he needed a haircut. The guitarist decided to pull a prank. "I'm actually a really good barber too," he said. "I could give you a haircut right now."
My friend was so enchanted by his musical talent that he trusted him immediately.
It was the worst haircut of his life.
Don't trust the guitarist to cut your hair. And don't confuse AI's technical strength with an ability to understand human problems like you do.
It might write code that runs perfectly, but without skilful direction, it likely serves no purpose.
That's why it's essential to know not just how to build with AI, but why.
The how gets easier by the day, and is increasingly done for you, and at greater speeds—but the why stays as difficult as it has always been.
AI is the master of speed. But you are the master of direction.
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH DELVE
If Santa delivered gifts the way most teams handle compliance, everything would arrive in February.
That’s also when most Q1 deals slip, all because security reviews weren’t handled during the holiday downtime. December is the cheat month. Your buyers are offline, your calendar finally breathes, and it's the one time of year you can prep for audits without juggling 10 active deals.
Do it now, and January becomes “closed-won season” instead of “waiting-on-security season.”
Stay off the naughty list. Handle compliance while the world is quiet so your Q1 doesn’t get stuck in the chimney.
Delve is offering a $1,500 dollars off compliance here (best deal yet).
Make this your least stressful audit season yet.
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ALL RIGHT, ENOUGH AI FOR TODAY
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