AI-driven development - it's a spectrum
I'ma self-taught developer on my journey to become a successful indie dev.
For more content follow me on Twitter @adrianthedev
I want to share my experience regarding AI-driven development.
I know it's not a new and shiny thing, and it's been around for a while now, but some things should need some time to take it through its paces and prove themselves.
What I want to emphasize is this series is that AI-driven development it's a spectrum. It's not a single thing you should use, it's not one setup that's universal or one tool that's the best. Not one "influencer" person out there is the only one that's right or wrong.
You need to figure out your workflow by yourself or with your team.
That might not be what you want, but that's the truth.
Your setup is unique to you and your workflow.
It's the same as your editor setup.
You might remember in 2014-2018 that there were people out there who were selling editor courses, or themes, plugins or settings.
That's what the people "needed" (or we thought we needed).
That was a time when editors were becoming so advanced and there were folks who were extending them to beyond editing simple files.
So, there were developers who didn't know that editors were capable of such things and they loved the content.
They loved that you can supercharge them, that you can make them minimalistic, that you can match the theme to your OS or visual style, or that you can use advanced keyboard shortcuts or macros to lighten the development load.
I feel that we are in the same boat now with AI-driven development.
We have these LLMs at our disposal which can do so many things and it's tough to discover everything.
There are so many tools which empower LLMs to do things, so many skills you can use that it may seem overwhelming.
In the beginning I used to install every MCP someone was recommending.
Then it was skills, so uninstall the MCPs and install every skill.
Then there were sets of skills (Impecable design, Compound Engineering).
Then, there are workflow differences. "You should start in your editor", "No, you should start in your terminal", "You should use Cursor", "Claude Code is the only thing you need", "Do all of your designs in X or Y"...
It's truly, truly overwhelming and it feels like you're wasting much time on setting up the "perfect" environment and not get too much done.
I'm working on a series of posts to share how I got started and how I stay sane through all of this.
I'm not testing all the tools, but I'm not not testing anything.
It's a lot of threading the water and keeping my eyes open.
So subscribe to follow along on this journey to making AI-driven development an easier path to take.
