When designing software features, the key skill is recognizing that a specific feature request is often a special case of a more general abstraction. Implementing the generalized version unlocks multiple features at once. This mental model is becoming harder to apply as developers increasingly think in terms of what AI agents can directly execute rather than in terms of underlying abstractions.

when you think of feature A your job is to recognize that it's actually a special case of feature X and if you implement feature X it unlocks feature A B C

people are struggling with this more than ever because everyone's brains are thinking in terms of what their agent can do

<p>when you think of feature A your job is to recognize that it's actually a special case of feature X and if you implement feature X it unlocks feature A B C

people are struggling with this more than ever because everyone's brains are thinking in terms of what their agent can do</p>