The hardest part of 10x tooling¶
March 6, 2026 · LinkedIn
16 reactions · 4 comments · 931 views
The hardest part of 10x tooling isn't learning the tools. It's unlearning what you think is reasonable.
Two days, back to back. Thirty developers. By end of day two, everyone in the room had a CLAUDE.md that changed Claude's behavior, 3–5 domain skills that encoded their actual codebase patterns, and at least one real task shipped using all of it together.
Then I gave them 90 minutes and one instruction:
"Build something that felt impossible this morning. Don't be sensible. Go wild."
The first reaction wasn't a rush of energy. It was grasping.
Not for tools or syntax. For ideas. For permission to want something that didn't feel sensible.
This is what I've started to think of as the learned ceiling. Not a skills gap. Not a tooling gap. The mental model we all carry about what belongs in the category of "things I could reasonably build today." That model forms over years. It's usually pretty accurate. It's also usually outdated by AI Agents in 2026.
SDD gives you the infrastructure — the CLAUDE.md, the domain skills, the feedback loops. But infrastructure alone doesn't touch the ceiling. You have to hit it to know it's there.
When they pushed through: a Swedish Chef-mode log analyzer with audio. Production logs in Bork Bork Bork-mode. A weather map for stargazers. A Unix operating system sketch. An animated mooing cow — from someone who isn't a developer.
None of those are technically the hardest things built this week. They're the things nobody would have tried two days ago.
That's the difference.
What was impossible yesterday is possible today. What is possible today is easy tomorrow.
Good weekend, everyone.
SDD #ClaudeCode #SkillDrivenDevelopment¶
Discussion¶
Can confirm. To me this has been a downright life-changing experience. Recommended!: Can confirm. To me this has been a downright life-changing experience. Recommended!
Totto ↩: Kjetil Hoem - that genuinely means a lot. "Life-changing" is not a word I take lightly, and hearing it from someone who was in the room makes it land differently. Thank you for saying it publicly — and for being part of a great day.
Hehe Love this 🫶: Hehe Love this 🫶
Thor Henning Hetland: Thor Henning Hetland I have no problem reaching for the stronger end of the vocabulary after our session yesterday. All in all it's been great to meet up with you again, and just like back in the day you leave me properly mindblown! That said - we should grab a beer one day! 😅