Apply Your Archetype

From M0-D (or your own self-assessment), you have a sense of your natural style. Lean into it:

If you're a Scholar

Start with research. Ask Claude to help you understand the domain before you build. Your first 20 prompts might be questions, not instructions. That's fine — you're building the foundation that makes the product thoughtful.

"I want to build [X]. Before we start coding,
help me understand what makes existing solutions
work well or poorly."

If you're an Aesthete

Start with references. Find 2-3 websites or apps that have the feeling you want. Share them with Claude. Then iterate visually — fast.

"Look at [reference site]. I want that kind of
feeling — clean, warm, lots of whitespace. Build
me [your thing] with that aesthetic."

If you're a Sprinter

Start building immediately. Get something deployed in the first 15 minutes. Then iterate furiously.

"Build me [your thing]. Keep it simple. Deploy it.
We'll improve from there."

No archetype is better. They're different rhythms for different people.

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When to push through vs. restart

Every project hits a wall. The question is: push through or start fresh?

Push through when:

• You have working code that just needs refinement
• The issue is cosmetic or incremental
• You can articulate specifically what's wrong
• You've made real progress and throwing it away would lose that

Restart when:

• Claude is going in circles, fixing one thing and breaking another
• The fundamental approach is wrong (not the details — the approach)
• The context window is full of failed attempts
• You can't articulate what you want because you're lost

Restarting is not failure. It's information. You now know what you don't want, which makes the second attempt dramatically better.

Build to Learn, Then Throw It Away

First version is a sketch, not a product.