ai-assisted-coding

The gap between the actual state of a codebase and the developer’s mental model, which rapidly accumulates when code is generated by AI rather than written by humans.

Incrementalism is the practice of reducing batch size so you can: learn sooner (faster feedback) reduce risk (smaller blast radius) keep options open (cheaper course-correction) In AI-assisted work, the same idea becomes more important, not less: the tooling can generate more output faster, but that doesn’t make it more trustworthy. Core Idea Build in thin slices and run a tight loop: Decide the smallest slice that will teach you something real. Specify only what you need to move forward (avoid “whole spec first”). Implement the slice, verify it (tests + review), and integrate it. Ship or stage it (flags if needed), observe, and repeat. The goal is not “more output per cycle”; it’s shorter cycle time and higher learning rate. ...