Cursor Almost Made Me Quit Coding. Here’s How I Tamed It.

Question

6 months. 3 rage-uninstalls. A dozen melted repos.

I’ve shipped multiple AI-built products solo—web apps all vibe-coded. No hype, no “prompt packs.” Just hard lessons after wasting hundreds of hours.

Here’s what works (and what doesn’t):

1. Start like a PM, not a prompt monkey Write a real PRD (product.md)
   before touching code. AI loses context fast—this is your compass.
2. Git or die trying Cursor will break something. Use version control
   like your life depends on it (it does).
3. Short, scoped chats > monolith threads new chat per task. Always
   lead with: “Fix X only. Don’t change anything else.”
4. Clean your house weekly AI thrives in tidy codebases. Delete temp
   files, refactor ruthlessly.
5. You’re the captain, not the passenger Cursor’s a co-pilot—not your
   intern. Use .cursorrules, git checkpoints, and your brain for
   system thinking.

No upsell. Just caffeine and hard-won truths.

P.S. If you want more like this, I write raw, unfiltered dev diaries on Substack. No fluff, just shipping.