When to Take the Wheel
It is late, and Kitty's balances are off by one paisa. You have asked the assistant to fix it three times. Each fix repairs one flatmate's number and breaks another's. Prompting a fourth time feels like progress, but it is only motion. Knowing when to stop describing and start doing is part of the skill.
The rule
Take the wheel when prompting costs more than doing, or understanding matters most.
"Taking the wheel" means you write the code, make the decision or work the problem out yourself. The assistant can still help afterwards, for example by reviewing what you wrote. Five signals say it is time:
- The loop is circling. Two or three attempts at the same problem, each one breaking something new, means more prompts will not help. You need understanding, not another guess.
- The change is tiny. Renaming a heading or changing a limit from 200 to 300 is quicker to type than to describe.
- You cannot explain the code, and it matters. For money, private data or safety, code you cannot explain is code you cannot trust.
- The decision is yours to make. How Kitty should treat a flatmate who moves out mid-month is a question about fairness among your flatmates, not about code. Decide it first, then describe it.
- You are trying to learn. If the goal is to understand a skill, write it yourself first, then compare with the assistant's version.
None of this is a failure of vibe coding. A driver who never touches the wheel is not driving.
The shortcut
Before each prompt, run three quick checks: Is this my third try at the same problem? Could I type it in under a minute? Will I be able to explain the result? A yes to either of the first two, or a no to the third, means take the wheel.
Count the strikes
Third attempt, and Ravi's balance is now wrong where Asha's was before. The loop is circling. Stop prompting.
The trap is the feeling that one more prompt will surely do it. After the second failed attempt, that feeling is usually wrong.
Drills
Answer fast — trust the rule.
You need to change the heading "Expenses" to "Shared costs" in one page. What is the best move?
It is your third attempt at the same bug, and each fix breaks something new. What does the rule suggest?
Which of these should you decide yourself before prompting, rather than leave to the assistant?
You are learning Python and want to really understand dictionaries. What helps most?
Kitty's rent-splitting code is correct according to its tests, but you cannot explain how it works. What should you do?
Remember
- Rule: take the wheel when prompting costs more than doing, or understanding matters most.
- Shortcut: third try? Faster by hand? Cannot explain it? Any of those means take over.
- Trap: believing one more prompt will fix a circling loop.