The Infrastructure You Forgot to Build
Scaffolding that stays vs. scaffolding that fades. Documentation done *while* building creates permanent capability. The port is disposable; the method is infrastructure.
Inspiration
Source: "The Infrastructure You Forgot to Build" - A blog post about Simon Willison's 4.5-hour AI-assisted port where the real output wasn't the code, but the documented method.
Emotional Arc: - Recognition: We keep solving the same problems from scratch - The leak: Capability escapes because we don't capture the pattern - The insight: Document while building, not after - The permanence: Build once, use forever
Potential Hooks: - "The infrastructure you forgot to build" - "Build once, use forever" - "The method keeps working" - "Scaffolding fades, the path remains"
Feel: Agency river energy — driving, workmanlike, anthemic but grounded. Pride in craft, not hype. The satisfaction of permanent capability.
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Style Prompt
Prog-rock meets grunge, driving anthemic energy, 108 BPM, tight palm-muted rhythm guitar with crunch, P-bass with pick, dynamic builds, half-time bridge, hard stop ending, male vocals with conviction, workmanlike pride not arena hype
Lyrics
Nine thousand lines from dusk to dawn
Then Tuesday comes, it's gone
You built it fast, you built it right
But only you could read the signs
The next one starts from zero ground
Same problems, same solutions found
Same wheel invented one more time
While the method dies inside your mind
But someone else was building different
He was documenting while he climbed
Every foothold marked and measured
The path remains when paths unwind
The infrastructure you forgot to build
The method keeps working when the worker's gone
Build once, use forever
The path remains, the path remains
You shipped the feature, killed the bug
Celebrated, moved along
But knowledge lived in you alone
And walked out when you walked home
The new hire stares at empty docs
At clever code that never talks
At systems only ghosts can read
At infrastructure you didn't need until you did
But someone else was building different
Writing down what worked and why
Every pattern, every pitfall
The method doesn't have to die
The infrastructure you forgot to build
The method keeps working when the worker's gone
Build once, use forever
The path remains, the path remains
Products fade and methods rise
The tool rusts but the technique survives
You're not building for today
You're building for the one who finds the way
When you're gone, when you're gone
Does the knowledge carry on?
So document the path you cut
Mark the stones, explain the ruts
Not for glory, not for fame
So the next one doesn't start the same
The infrastructure you forgot to build
The method keeps working when the worker's gone
Build once, use forever
The path remains
The infrastructure you forgot to build
The method keeps working when the worker's gone
Build once, use forever
The path remains, the path remains
The path remains
