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If someone 50 years ago planted a row of oaks\nor a chestnut tree on your plot of land, you have something that no amount of\nmoney or effort can replicate. The only way is to wait. Tree-lined roads, old\ngardens, houses sheltered by decades of canopy: if you want to start fresh on an\nempty plot, you will not be able to get that. Because some things just take time. We know this intuitively. We pay premiums for Swiss watches, Herm\u00e8s bags and\nold properties precisely because of the time embedded in them. Either because\nof the time it took to build them or because of their age. We require age\nminimums for driving, voting, and drinking because we believe maturity only\ncomes through lived experience. Yet right now we also live in a time of instant gratification, and it\u2019s entering\nhow we build software and companies. As much as we can speed up code\ngeneration, the real defining element of a successful company or an Open Source\nproject will continue to be tenacity. The ability of leadership or the\nmaintainers to stick to a problem for years, to build relationships, to work\nthrough challenges fundamentally defined by human lifetimes. Friction Is Good The current generation of startup founders and programmers is obsessed\nwith speed. Fast iteration, rapid deployment, doing everything as quickly as\npossible. For many things, that\u2019s fine. You can go fast, leave some quality on\nthe table, and learn something along the way. But there are things where speed is actively harmful, where the friction exists\nfor a reason. Compliance is one of those cases. There\u2019s a strong desire to\neliminate everything that processes like SOC2 require, and an entire industry of\nturnkey solutions has sprung up to help \u2014 (https://substack.com/home/post/p-191342187) Delve just being one example,\nthere are more. There\u2019s a feeling that all the things that create friction in your life should\nbe automated away. That human involvement should be replaced by AI-based\ndecision-making. Because it is the friction of the process that is the problem.\nWhen in fact many times the friction, or that things just take time, is\nprecisely the point. There\u2019s a reason we have cooling-off periods for some important decisions in\none\u2019s life. We recognize that people need time to think about what they\u2019re\ndoing, and that doing something right once doesn\u2019t mean much because you need to\nbe able to do it over a longer period of time. Vibe Slop At Inference Speeds AI writes code fast which isn\u2019t news anymore. What\u2019s interesting is that we\u2019re\npushing this force downstream: we seemingly have this desire to ship faster than\never, to run more experiments and that creates a new desire, one to remove all\nthe remaining friction of reviews, designing and configuring infrastructure,\nanything that slows the pipeline. If the machines are so great, why do we even\nneed checklists or permission systems? Express desire, enjoy result. Because we now believe it is important for us to just do everything faster. But\nincreasingly, I also feel like this means that the shelf life of much of the\nsoftware being created today \u2014 software that people and businesses should depend\non \u2014 can be measured only in months rather than decades, and the relationships\nalongside. In one of last year\u2019s earlier YC batches, there was already a handful that just\ndisappeared without even saying what they learned or saying goodbye to their\ncustomers. They just shut down their public presence and moved on to other\nthings. And to me, that is not a sign of healthy iteration. That is a sign of\nbreaking the basic trust you need to build a relationship with customers. A\nproper shutdown takes time and effort, and our current environment treats that\nas time not wisely spent. Better to just move on to the next thing. This is extending to Open Source projects as well. All of a sudden, everything\nis an Open Source project, but many of them only have commits for a week or so,\nand then they go away because the motivation of the creator already waned. And\nin the name of experimentation, that is all good and well, but what makes a good\nOpen Source project is that you think and truly believe that the person that\ncreated it is either going to stick with it for a very long period of time, or\nthey are able to set up a strategy for succession, or they have created enough\nof a community that these projects will stand the test of time in one form or\nanother. My Time Relatedly, I\u2019m also increasingly skeptical of anyone who sells me something that\nsupposedly saves my time. When all that I see is that everybody who is like me,\nfully onboarded into AI and agentic tools, seemingly has less and less time\navailable because we fall into a trap where we\u2019re immediately filling it with\nmore things. We all sell each other the idea that we\u2019re going to save time, but that is not\nwhat\u2019s happening. Any time saved gets immediately captured by competition.\nSomeone who actually takes a breath is outmaneuvered by someone who fills every\nfreed-up hour with new output. There is no easy way to bank the time and it\njust disappears. I feel this acutely. I\u2019m very close to the red-hot center of where economic\nactivity around AI is taking place, and more than anything, I have less and less\ntime, even when I try to purposefully scale back and create the space. For me\nthis is a problem. It\u2019s a problem because even with the best intentions, I\nactually find it very hard to create quality when we are quickly commoditizing\nsoftware, and the machines make it so appealing. I keep coming back to the trees. I\u2019ve been maintaining Open Source projects for\nclose to two decades now. The last startup I worked on, I spent 10 years at.\nThat\u2019s not because I\u2019m particularly disciplined or virtuous. It\u2019s because I or\nsomeone else, planted something, and then I kept showing up, and eventually the\nthing had roots that went deeper than my enthusiasm on any given day. That\u2019s\nwhat time does! It turns some idea or plan into a commitment and a commitment\ninto something that can shelter and grow other people. Nobody is going to mass-produce a 50-year-old oak. And nobody is going to\nconjure trust, or quality, or community out of a weekend sprint. The things\nI value most \u2014 the projects, the relationships, the communities \u2014 are all\nthings that took years to become what they are. No tool, no matter how fast,\nwas going to get them there sooner. We recently (https://earendil.com/) planted a new tree with Colin. I want it\nto grow into a large one. I know that\u2019s going to take time, and I\u2019m not in a\nrush. This entry was tagged (/tags/ai/) ai (/2026/3/20/some-things-just-take-time.md) copy as / (/2026/3/20/some-things-just-take-time.md) view markdown \u00a9 Copyright 2026 by Armin Ronacher. Content licensed under the Creative Commons\n Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) License . Contact me via (mailto:armin.ronacher@active-4.com) mail , (https://bsky.app/profile/mitsuhiko.at) bluesky , (http://x.com/mitsuhiko) x , or (http://github.com/mitsuhiko) github . You can (https://github.com/sponsors/mitsuhiko/) sponsor me on github . More info: (/about#imprint) imprint & (/ai-transparency) AI transparency .\n Subscribe via (/feed.atom) (Armin Ronacher's\n Thoughts and Writings) atom / (/feed.xml) (Armin Ronacher's\n Thoughts and Writings) RSS . Color scheme: (system) auto , (light) light , (dark) dark . " ], "output": "htmltotext.txt", "pwd": "/data/archive/1774145813.279627", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-03-22T02:17:34.064364+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "media": [ { "cmd": [ "/usr/local/bin/yt-dlp", "--restrict-filenames", "--trim-filenames", "128", "--write-description", "--write-info-json", "--write-annotations", "--write-thumbnail", "--no-call-home", "--write-sub", "--write-auto-subs", "--convert-subs=srt", "--yes-playlist", "--continue", "--no-abort-on-error", "--ignore-errors", "--geo-bypass", "--add-metadata", "--format=(bv*+ba/b)[filesize<=750m][filesize_approx<=?750m]/(bv*+ba/b)", "--skip-download", "--cache-dir=/data/yt-dlp-cache/", "--cookies=/data/yt-dlp-cache/cookies.txt", "--proxy=socks5://tor-socks-proxy:9150", "--no-playlist", "https://lucumr.pocoo.org/2026/3/20/some-things-just-take-time/" ], "cmd_version": "2024.10.7", "end_ts": "2026-03-22T02:17:43.110377+00:00", "index_texts": [], "output": "media/", "pwd": "/data/archive/1774145813.279627", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-03-22T02:17:37.117512+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "mercury": [ { "cmd": [ "/home/archivebox/.npm/bin/postlight-parser", "https://lucumr.pocoo.org/2026/3/20/some-things-just-take-time/" ], "cmd_version": "2.2.3", "end_ts": "2026-03-22T02:17:33.956543+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "mercury/", "pwd": "/data/archive/1774145813.279627", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-03-22T02:17:31.862749+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "pdf": [], "readability": [ { "cmd": [ "/home/archivebox/.npm/bin/readability-extractor", "/tmp/tmpxfvfj6sg", "https://lucumr.pocoo.org/2026/3/20/some-things-just-take-time/" ], "cmd_version": "0.0.11", "end_ts": "2026-03-22T02:17:22.659373+00:00", "index_texts": [ "written on March 20, 2026\n \n\n Trees take quite a while to grow. If someone 50 years ago planted a row of oaks\nor a chestnut tree on your plot of land, you have something that no amount of\nmoney or effort can replicate. The only way is to wait. Tree-lined roads, old\ngardens, houses sheltered by decades of canopy: if you want to start fresh on an\nempty plot, you will not be able to get that.\nBecause some things just take time.\nWe know this intuitively. We pay premiums for Swiss watches, Herm\u00e8s bags and\nold properties precisely because of the time embedded in them. Either because\nof the time it took to build them or because of their age. We require age\nminimums for driving, voting, and drinking because we believe maturity only\ncomes through lived experience.\nYet right now we also live in a time of instant gratification, and it\u2019s entering\nhow we build software and companies. As much as we can speed up code\ngeneration, the real defining element of a successful company or an Open Source\nproject will continue to be tenacity. The ability of leadership or the\nmaintainers to stick to a problem for years, to build relationships, to work\nthrough challenges fundamentally defined by human lifetimes.\nFriction Is Good\nThe current generation of startup founders and programmers is obsessed\nwith speed. Fast iteration, rapid deployment, doing everything as quickly as\npossible. For many things, that\u2019s fine. You can go fast, leave some quality on\nthe table, and learn something along the way.\nBut there are things where speed is actively harmful, where the friction exists\nfor a reason. Compliance is one of those cases. There\u2019s a strong desire to\neliminate everything that processes like SOC2 require, and an entire industry of\nturnkey solutions has sprung up to help \u2014\nDelve just being one example,\nthere are more.\nThere\u2019s a feeling that all the things that create friction in your life should\nbe automated away. That human involvement should be replaced by AI-based\ndecision-making. Because it is the friction of the process that is the problem.\nWhen in fact many times the friction, or that things just take time, is\nprecisely the point.\nThere\u2019s a reason we have cooling-off periods for some important decisions in\none\u2019s life. We recognize that people need time to think about what they\u2019re\ndoing, and that doing something right once doesn\u2019t mean much because you need to\nbe able to do it over a longer period of time.\nVibe Slop At Inference Speeds\nAI writes code fast which isn\u2019t news anymore. What\u2019s interesting is that we\u2019re\npushing this force downstream: we seemingly have this desire to ship faster than\never, to run more experiments and that creates a new desire, one to remove all\nthe remaining friction of reviews, designing and configuring infrastructure,\nanything that slows the pipeline. If the machines are so great, why do we even\nneed checklists or permission systems? Express desire, enjoy result.\nBecause we now believe it is important for us to just do everything faster. But\nincreasingly, I also feel like this means that the shelf life of much of the\nsoftware being created today \u2014 software that people and businesses should depend\non \u2014 can be measured only in months rather than decades, and the relationships\nalongside.\nIn one of last year\u2019s earlier YC batches, there was already a handful that just\ndisappeared without even saying what they learned or saying goodbye to their\ncustomers. They just shut down their public presence and moved on to other\nthings. And to me, that is not a sign of healthy iteration. That is a sign of\nbreaking the basic trust you need to build a relationship with customers. A\nproper shutdown takes time and effort, and our current environment treats that\nas time not wisely spent. Better to just move on to the next thing.\nThis is extending to Open Source projects as well. All of a sudden, everything\nis an Open Source project, but many of them only have commits for a week or so,\nand then they go away because the motivation of the creator already waned. And\nin the name of experimentation, that is all good and well, but what makes a good\nOpen Source project is that you think and truly believe that the person that\ncreated it is either going to stick with it for a very long period of time, or\nthey are able to set up a strategy for succession, or they have created enough\nof a community that these projects will stand the test of time in one form or\nanother.\nMy Time\nRelatedly, I\u2019m also increasingly skeptical of anyone who sells me something that\nsupposedly saves my time. When all that I see is that everybody who is like me,\nfully onboarded into AI and agentic tools, seemingly has less and less time\navailable because we fall into a trap where we\u2019re immediately filling it with\nmore things.\nWe all sell each other the idea that we\u2019re going to save time, but that is not\nwhat\u2019s happening. Any time saved gets immediately captured by competition.\nSomeone who actually takes a breath is outmaneuvered by someone who fills every\nfreed-up hour with new output. There is no easy way to bank the time and it\njust disappears.\nI feel this acutely. I\u2019m very close to the red-hot center of where economic\nactivity around AI is taking place, and more than anything, I have less and less\ntime, even when I try to purposefully scale back and create the space. For me\nthis is a problem. It\u2019s a problem because even with the best intentions, I\nactually find it very hard to create quality when we are quickly commoditizing\nsoftware, and the machines make it so appealing.\nI keep coming back to the trees. I\u2019ve been maintaining Open Source projects for\nclose to two decades now. The last startup I worked on, I spent 10 years at.\nThat\u2019s not because I\u2019m particularly disciplined or virtuous. It\u2019s because I or\nsomeone else, planted something, and then I kept showing up, and eventually the\nthing had roots that went deeper than my enthusiasm on any given day. That\u2019s\nwhat time does! It turns some idea or plan into a commitment and a commitment\ninto something that can shelter and grow other people.\nNobody is going to mass-produce a 50-year-old oak. And nobody is going to\nconjure trust, or quality, or community out of a weekend sprint. The things\nI value most \u2014 the projects, the relationships, the communities \u2014 are all\nthings that took years to become what they are. No tool, no matter how fast,\nwas going to get them there sooner.\nWe recently planted a new tree with Colin. I want it\nto grow into a large one. 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