Atomic ObjectKyle Humphrey4 min readintermediate
Use Curiosity, Craft, and Care to Decide What AI Should Write
Summary
The post proposes a three‑principle framework—Curiosity, Craft, and Care—to decide how much AI should author each artifact in a software development workflow. It argues that AI can be used aggressively for exploratory, disposable outputs (Curiosity) but should be limited for artifacts that commit the team to decisions (Craft) and for communications that require personal ownership (Care). The auth…
- Use AI heavily for low‑stakes, exploratory work (e.g., research, proof‑of‑concepts) where outputs are disposable.
- Keep humans in the loop for artifacts that define scope, decisions, or acceptance criteria (e.g., backlog items, implementation plans).
- Maintain direct human authorship for communications that represent team intent or client relationships (e.g., meeting summaries, client updates).
- Separate AI‑generated technical guidance from human‑facing artifacts to preserve shared vocabulary and ownership.
When AI writes too much of the product definition, teams can lose the sense of ownership and the ability to trace decisions back to original discussions, leading to confusion, misaligned expectations, and harder maintenance.
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