Prototyping Memes

You know your project is in a healthy state when the team has already written a 40-page lore bible complete with world-building, character backstories, and probably a detailed taxonomy of fantasy creatures before a single line of code has been committed. The enthusiasm is palpable—until reality hits and you realize you're still arguing about whether to use REST or GraphQL while your documentation could rival Tolkien's appendices. The classic case of over-planning meets under-delivering. Someone on the team definitely spent three weeks designing the perfect database schema for a feature that'll get cut in the first sprint review. Meanwhile, the prototype is still just a "Hello World" with extra steps. But hey, at least we know the protagonist's childhood trauma and how it affects their API authentication preferences!

Shopify exec just casually ending the careers of countless "idea people" who've spent years perfecting the phrase "I'll get the devs to build that." Somewhere, a PM is frantically Googling "how to code hello world" while sweating through their Patagonia vest. The ultimate "put up or shut up" moment for those who've been drawing boxes on whiteboards and calling it "product vision."