How to Avoid Aperture Collapse

I've been playing with this idea of Aperture Collapse.

It's a problem I have that I suspect a lot of people have as well.

It's where AI has magnified our capabilities so much as builders that we end up building tons of sub-systems and mini-apps instead of the full platform.

This happens to me constantly.

I spend days or weeks enhancing some smaller component of the system, just because I can, and it's useful, only to realize that there's so much more I could have built towards the mission if I were properly zoomed out.

Hence Aperture Collapse.

Something like: the more capabilities you have, the more you build fractally and the more you forget to zoom back out.

One way this manifests is simply never sending to your DA/Harness a prompt like this:

My grand vision is this, this, and this, which will allow us to do this, this, and this. I think the future of this is this, so what we are trying to build is an entire ecosystem or system around this or this. A big part of what you're doing for me is helping me organize all the different components that need to happen to make this tangible. We need to keep this in context as we do work to make sure we keep the big picture in mind as we're building the subsystems. Don't get distracted by the tactical.

Something like that.

I guess my takeaway is to constantly ask yourself, or have your DA/Harness remind you, to zoom back out after a period of building.

1. What is the bigger thing I'm building?
2. Is what I'm doing right now the best use of time?
3. Have I properly articulated the big picture to my system so it can help me stay on track?

Hope this helps someone.