The Escape Velocity Manifesto: Beyond the Gravity of Chat
The Gravitational Pull
The tech industry is suffering from a massive gravitational pull.
Look around. The vast majority of engineers and managers are rushing towards the exact same spot: the chat window. They are getting pulled into an endless loop of prompting, correcting, and re-prompting.
At best, they rely on Copilot inside their IDE. With luck, they might know what MCP (Model Context Protocol) is, and if they are feeling adventurous, maybe they even use it.
But mostly, they are stuck on the ground, treating AI like a chatbot.
I call this the «Gravity of the Average». It feels safe because everyone is doing it. But it is slow, it is prone to hallucination, and it is fundamentally unscalable for enterprise needs.
Breaking Free
I realized that to efficiently lead high-performance teams in this new era, I couldn’t just move faster; I needed to break away from the surface entirely.
I needed Escape Velocity.
So, I made a radical decision. I stopped «chatting» and started architecting context.
The Methodology: Specs & Skills
Reaching Escape Velocity requires a propulsion system that standard prompting cannot provide. My framework is built on two non-negotiable pillars:
1. Specs (The Trajectory): I don’t ask the AI to «guess» the path. I inject rigid definitions of business rules, architectural constraints, and success criteria. This is the navigation chart.
2. Skills (The Engine): I provide modular, reusable tools and patterns that the AI executes deterministically. These are the thrusters.
When you migrate to a Specs & Skills architecture, the friction of «gravity» disappears. The AI stops hallucinating because the context is absolute. It understands the entirety of the project, not just the last 20 messages of a conversation.
The View from Orbit
This isn’t just about coding efficiency; it’s about Strategic Clarity.
The Crowd is still down there, debating which prompt works best for a single function.
I am up here, orchestrating entire systems where delivery is predictable, robust, and exponentially faster.
This is the next step for Engineering Leadership. It is the shift from being a «User» to being a «Commander.»
AI won’t replace engineers. But engineers who reach Escape Velocity will replace those stuck on the ground.
Stop fighting gravity. Start engineering context.
Welcome to Escape Velocity.