The "Negative split" software engineering effect

Using the running concept of 'negative split' (finishing faster than you started) as a metaphor for sustainable software engineering, this piece argues that teams rushing to adopt AI tools or ship features quickly are accumulating technical debt that will slow them down later. The author draws on personal marathon experience and managing a new team to illustrate how starting too fast leads to hitting a wall. The recommended approach: slow down deliberately to build better foundations — especially for AI adoption, where investing in rich context layers and guidelines upfront leads to better long-term output than rushing with mediocre AI-generated code.