The Collaborative Build
Specification becomes artifact through dialogue. This month teaches building—not by typing every character, but by collaborating with another mind to generate, verify, and refine.
The hope is that, in not too many years, human brains and computing machines will be coupled together very tightly, and that the resulting partnership will think as no human brain has ever thought.
Prerequisites
Month 3 builds on everything from Months 1-2. You should be comfortable with:
- *Reading and verifying code (Month 1)
- *Writing complete specifications (Month 2)
- *Finding gaps and edge cases in specifications
Not there yet? Complete Month 2 first
What Month 2 revealed
Month 2 taught you that specification is a mirror. The gaps between what you thought and what you wrote revealed your assumptions, your implicit knowledge, your blind spots.
You learned this through small cycles: specify a function, see it interpreted, find the gap, refine. Each iteration brought your externalized thought closer to your intent.
But those were short cycles. Small problems. Quick feedback.
Month 3 asks what happens when the cycle is long—when you're building something real, and your specification from Week 1 breaks by Week 3. When the artifact forces you to rethink not just how to build it, but what you're building.
Time commitment
Same rhythm as before: readings (~45 min each) with substantial practice. Budget 6-7 hours per week.
~3 hours reading
4 lessons total
~22 hours practice
48 exercises + capstone
The shift
Month 1 taught you to read. Month 2 taught you to specify. Month 3 is where it becomes dialogue—building through collaboration, not alone.
Month 1
Read code
Understand intent
Month 2
Write specifications
Externalize thought
Month 3
Build through dialogue
Specify, generate, verify, refine
The key insight
Building isn't typing. Building is dialogue. You specify. Another mind generates. You verify against your intent. When it doesn't match—and it won't, at first—you diagnose why. Was your specification incomplete? Was the interpretation wrong? That diagnosis is where learning lives.
Weekly breakdown
Week 1: Functions as Packaged Thought
Week 2: Data Structures
Reading
How does the shape of data determine what's easy?
Observe
The Fishbowl: Structure Choices
Predict what structure they'll choose before they decide
Practice
Data Structure Exercises
Choose structures, understand tradeoffs, model your own learning as a graph
Week 3: Building Through Dialogue
What I cannot create I do not understand.
Ready to start?
Begin with the lesson, observe the Fishbowl, then practice. Expect things to break. That's where learning lives.