YAGNI

YAGNI means You Aren't Gonna Need It.

Ship what is in the room tonight. The imaginary cathedral waits.

The trap is familiar. You sat down to ship a todo list. Then the voice starts: five languages, an admin panel, a plugin system, a second database "for later." None of that is the demo. Each extra feature is luggage for a trip you are not taking — you maintain it, you debug it, you explain it to the next agent session.

Saturday has a timer

Hackathons are YAGNI with a clock. The builder and the CLI exist so you do not invent a platform before you have a button. Pick a stack. Stamp it. Ship a URL. If the third user needs the abstraction, refactor then.

This is not permission to be sloppy. Skip the fantasy features. Do not skip git, do not skip the one test for the path that can humiliate you, do not skip deploy until 4 p.m. YAGNI is about what. KISS is about how.

Agents over-deliver

Ask for email sign-in and a model will gift you OAuth, magic links, and an admin panel. It feels generous. It is four extra bags. Prompt it: "Build the smallest thing that solves this. No just-in-case extras. Ask before adding."

The honest test: are you solving a problem in the room tonight, or a problem you are picturing? If it is a picture, write it on a list. The list is free. The feature is technical debt with a smile.

What this unlocks

Features are cheap to add the morning they become real. Saturdays spent on imaginary ones do not come back. Demo first. Cathedral later.