Mastering the Forms vs. Winning the Duel: Week 02
“Mastering the Forms vs. Winning the Duel”
The most complex app I’ve ever built, I built in 3.5 days, this is how I got Locked In at Fractal Tech.
Every samurai starts the same way: learning forms. Sword, Stance & Breath. Repeating movements until muscle becomes memory and memory becomes as natural as breathing. The student transcends the blade, for the mind will become the weapon.
Monday I faced my first real battle. Build an AI Chatbot wrapper with a unique feature using the model of our choice. The swords required were React Router, Better Auth, Supabase, Drizzle ORM, Vercel’s AI-SDK and a shacn/UI library of our choice. I’d been learning TypeScript for four weeks. Of these 6 technologies, I’d only touched Supabase and transferred some Moongoose experience to Drizzle.
My first instinct? “Explain these docs to me.”
That’s when I learned I was about to loose my first real battle.
Even with good prompts that prioritize concepts over explicit answers, I’d turned AI into an answer collector—not a sparring partner. Then another stuent, Russel, showed me something different: test your mental model against reality. Ask AI to validate what you think you understand. Start at the high level, drill down gradually & be sure to test yourself along the way. It’s like using AI as a mirror for your mental model. The gaps become obvious and you can adjust with out feeling overwhelmed.
Here’s what no one tells you, you often don’t win your first fight. You’ll execute on every form perfectly and still not land the killing blow. I implemented all six technologies in about four day’s time. My app works, but it doesn’t have a unique feature and I barely completed the curriculum for the week. However, this week I was at my edge, sharpening my sword all week. That foundational knowledge I gained compounds forever. This week I learned to hold 6 different swords, the technology is more or less superfluous. “Once you can wield your weapon, the victories take care of themselves.”
A good sensei doesn’t ask if you’ve won. They ask:
- “Did you hold your sword correctly?”
- “Did you maintain your stance?”
“It’s harder to make the glass than break the glass.” - The RZA
My Week 01 Project
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