Shipping fast is fun. Supporting it six months later? That’s where the real test begins.
I love fast builds.
There’s a thrill in taking an idea from whiteboard to web in a weekend.
But I’ve also lived through the consequences of speed.
Fragile infra, mystery bugs, and “how-does-this-even-work” codebases.
Shipping fast and building things that last aren’t enemies.
But they pull in different directions. Finding the balance is the job.
🧪 Fast Builds Teach You What Actually Matters
Speed exposes the signal.
You quickly find:
- What users care about
- What features matter
- What can be dropped
Fast builds cut through overengineering.
You don’t need 100% test coverage to know your product isn’t solving a real problem.
But…
🛠️ Fast Code is Often Throwaway Code
Speed loves shortcuts: hardcoded configs, one-off scripts, no error handling.
That’s fine - until you forget it’s a prototype and it becomes prod.
Maintainability doesn’t require slowness.
But it does require intentionality:
- Logs that explain, not confuse
- Comments that tell you why, not what
- Configs that survive a server restart
The faster you ship, the sooner you should refactor - if you want the build to last.
🧱 Things I Now Build Into Fast Projects (By Default)
These are my guardrails - minimal effort, high ROI:
.envconfig from day one- Logging with levels (
info,warn,error) - Slack/webhook alerts for key failures
- Tiny health check endpoint (
/pingor/_health) - README with 3 bullets: what it does, how to run, where it lives
None of these slow you down.
But they save hours later.
⏳ Thinking in Time Horizons
I use this mental model:
- Week 1: How fast can I get this in front of real users?
- Week 2+: How do I make this self-sustaining?
Not every project needs 10-year maintainability.
But the ones that catch on will need some.
Future-you is a stakeholder too.
Don’t make them dig through script-final-final-v2.js.
⚖️ What’s the Right Balance?
There’s no formula - but here’s how I think about it:
| If… | Then… |
|---|---|
| You’re validating an idea | Optimize for speed. Be messy. Just learn fast. |
| You’re onboarding others | Add docs, logs, and state clarity. |
| It’s getting users or revenue | Clean up. Build for resilience. |
| You’re tired of debugging it | It’s time to make it boring. That’s a feature. |
💬 Takeaways
Fast builds make you feel powerful.
Maintainable builds make your team feel powerful.
The sweet spot?
Code that ships fast, breaks loudly, and fixes easily.
The best code isn’t just fast to write - it’s slow to break.