Brooke Houck

Last weekend I tried Lovable to build a simple habit tracker, and the starting results were mind-blowing. But by Thursday, every small tweak started breaking existing features I wasn't even working on. Prompts became exhausting, and my patience was tested.

I started attaching a small constraint document: a brief summary of the app's goals, explicit restrictions on what it shouldn't alter, and a record of all error-free screens. I paste this right at the start of every big prompt.

It s far from perfect, but it reduced unexpected code breakages significantly.

Do you paste guidelines with your prompts, or do you rely on starting from scratch each time?

I used to waste weeks fixing tiny visual details instead of getting real feedback.

I realized I was just using design tweaks as an excuse to delay showing my work to actual people.

Now as long as the primary workflow operates smoothly and I can track basic user steps I share it with a small test group right away. Rough visual edges don't matter half as much as validating the main concept early.

Where do you draw the line between shipping too early versus holding back too long?

I fell into a trap where I tried to optimize every minor step in my daily routine. I d waste a whole afternoon building a complex setup for a task that only takes five minutes a month.

I realized that a basic manual process you understand instantly is way better than a complicated setup you constantly have to fix and maintain. Now I only automate things that waste significant time every day.