Nico, Maja, Karl — this is one of the cleanest articulations of the pattern I've read. I've been running a version of this for almost a year and can confirm the compounding is real.
One layer I'd add for anyone building on this: the repo is Layer 1. There is a Layer 2 that starts to bite at ~10 reps, and the cleanest proof is the METR study from summer 2025. Randomized controlled trial, 16 experienced devs on their own repos. They expected to be 24% faster with AI. They felt 20% faster. The stopwatch showed they were 19% slower — a 39-point gap between perception and reality.
That gap doesn't disappear in GTM; it widens, because our "stopwatch" (pipeline metrics) lags by 60-90 days. A personal repo accelerates stages 1-2 (thinking, drafting). Stages 3-5 (handoff, execution, attribution) don't move without a different kind of infrastructure. Both layers are needed.
The starter kit is a great first step. Worth reading twice.
Nico, Maja, Karl — this is one of the cleanest articulations of the pattern I've read. I've been running a version of this for almost a year and can confirm the compounding is real.
One layer I'd add for anyone building on this: the repo is Layer 1. There is a Layer 2 that starts to bite at ~10 reps, and the cleanest proof is the METR study from summer 2025. Randomized controlled trial, 16 experienced devs on their own repos. They expected to be 24% faster with AI. They felt 20% faster. The stopwatch showed they were 19% slower — a 39-point gap between perception and reality.
That gap doesn't disappear in GTM; it widens, because our "stopwatch" (pipeline metrics) lags by 60-90 days. A personal repo accelerates stages 1-2 (thinking, drafting). Stages 3-5 (handoff, execution, attribution) don't move without a different kind of infrastructure. Both layers are needed.
The starter kit is a great first step. Worth reading twice.
Great work Nico, Karl and Maja!
Love this overview, exactly what we’ll be building next