Nine Questions One Developer Answers Before Writing a Single Line of Code

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A developer who has shipped numerous side projects argues that cheap, AI-assisted coding has shifted the real cost of failure from writing code to wasting months building the wrong thing. Drawing on patterns like Marc Lou's 35-startup journey, the author now requires every idea to pass nine sequential questions before a repository is created. The questions cover market demand, buyer identity, pain severity, competitive positioning, V1 scope, pricing strategy, and willingness-to-pay validation. Each answer must be grounded in verifiable evidence rather than intuition or AI-generated optimism. The framework is designed to kill weak ideas early, treating that outcome as time recovered rather than effort lost.

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