We've become obsessed with building faster. I'm not sure we're learning faster.

Lately, I've noticed something in a lot of founder conversations.

We get excited about how quickly we shipped something.

We don't talk nearly as much about what we learned from it.

And I get it.

The pace of building today is honestly incredible, fast moving and what not?

A feature that would've taken weeks a couple of years ago can now come together in a weekend.

Sometimes even an afternoon.

That's exciting :D

But every now and then, I catch myself wondering...

Are we getting better at building?

Or are we just getting better at building faster?

Because those aren't the same thing.

I've seen products launch with beautiful interfaces, polished AI, great branding, and impressive demos.

Then a real user shows up.

They click somewhere unexpected.

They misunderstand the first screen.

They ignore the feature you spent days building.

And within five minutes, you've learned more than you did during the entire development process.

Those moments are frustrating.

They're also incredibly valuable.

I don't think users care how long something took us to build.

They care whether it makes their day a little easier.

Whether it saves them ten minutes.

Whether it removes one annoying task.

Whether it solves the problem they actually have—not the one we imagined they had.

Lately, I've been trying to celebrate those moments a little more.

Not when we ship.

But when we learn something that changes how we think.

Sometimes that lesson comes from analytics.

Sometimes it comes from a support ticket.

Sometimes it's just one person saying,

"I thought it worked differently."

It's a tiny sentence.

But it can completely change the direction of a product.

AI has made it easier than ever to build.

I'm grateful for that.

But I don't think faster building automatically leads to better products.

Learning still takes curiosity.

Conversations.

Watching someone use your product without interrupting them.

Being willing to admit that your favorite idea wasn't the right one.

Maybe that's the part that doesn't speed up.

So I've started asking myself a different question.

Instead of...

"How fast can we build this?"

I've been asking...

"What's the fastest way we can find out if we're even building the right thing?"

For me, that's become the more interesting challenge.