We live in a culture where developers are constantly told to move faster.
Ship more features.
Close more tickets.
Write more code.
Learn more tools.
Use AI to make everything faster.
But there’s a problem:
Speed without direction is just expensive chaos.
A developer who spends 3 hours carefully understanding a problem can often outperform someone who spends 8 hours rapidly building the wrong solution.
The real productivity skill: thinking before coding
Before opening your IDE, ask:
- What problem am I actually solving?
- Who is affected by this problem?
- What is the simplest solution?
- What could break if I change this?
- How will I know the solution actually works?
These questions may feel slower.
They aren't.
They prevent hours of unnecessary coding.
AI makes this even more important
AI can generate code in seconds.
But AI doesn't automatically know:
- What your users actually need
- Which business rule is critical
- Which legacy behavior cannot be changed
- Whether a shortcut will create technical debt
- What consequences a seemingly small change might have
Generating code is becoming cheap. Understanding the problem is becoming more valuable.
A simple rule I use
Before implementing a feature, spend a few minutes writing down:
Problem → Cause → Options → Trade-offs → Solution
Then code.
This small habit can dramatically reduce rework.
Because the goal of software development isn't to produce the most code.
The goal is to solve the right problem with the least unnecessary complexity.
What do you think is more valuable for developers today: coding speed or problem-solving ability?
