--- title: Raise the ambition threshold — Jack Vanlightly | daily.dev description: AI dramatically lowers the cost of building software, but that doesn't mean teams should build more — it means they should build bigger. The post warns against... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/raise-the-ambition-threshold-jack-vanlightly-l9pfv98vq twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Raise the ambition threshold — Jack Vanlightly | daily.dev og:description: AI dramatically lowers the cost of building software, but that doesn't mean teams should build more — it means they should build bigger. The post warns against... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/raise-the-ambition-threshold-jack-vanlightly-l9pfv98vq og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/l9pfV98vQ.png og:image:alt: Raise the ambition threshold — Jack Vanlightly og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Raise the ambition threshold — Jack Vanlightly **[Jack Vanlightly](https://daily.dev/sources/jack-vanlightly)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary AI dramatically lowers the cost of building software, but that doesn't mean teams should build more — it means they should build bigger. The post warns against 'lowering the value threshold' (finally shipping low-priority features because they're now cheap) and instead argues for 'raising the ambition threshold' (using AI to attempt what was previously too risky or complex). Drawing on the concept of catabolic collapse, it argues that every shipped system carries ongoing maintenance obligations, and indiscriminate AI-assisted output can accumulate technical debt faster than organizations can manage it. The real competitive risk is that while one company burns down its backlog, a competitor uses AI to build something genuinely transformational. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [AI Is Accelerating How Fast We Build the Wrong Thing](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-is-accelerating-how-fast-we-build-the-wrong-thing-sgupv8eo2) · DevOps.com · 10 upvotes · 3 comments - [The feature is cheap to code, so we might as well build it. \(Probably not\)](https://daily.dev/posts/the-feature-is-cheap-to-code-so-we-might-as-well-build-it-probably-not--fsotesh3m) · Medium · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [“You can't vibe code scale”: What the AI hype gets wrong about software engineering](https://daily.dev/posts/you-can-t-vibe-code-scale-what-the-ai-hype-gets-wrong-about-software-engineering-rrqmusgve) · Stack Overflow Blog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#company-culture](https://daily.dev/tags/company-culture), [#technical-debt](https://daily.dev/tags/technical-debt) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/raise-the-ambition-threshold-jack-vanlightly-l9pfv98vq) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Raise the ambition threshold — Jack Vanlightly","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/raise-the-ambition-threshold-jack-vanlightly-l9pfv98vq","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/raise-the-ambition-threshold-jack-vanlightly-l9pfv98vq"},"datePublished":"2026-07-09T07:01:20.690Z","dateModified":"2026-07-09T07:04:17.099Z","description":"AI dramatically lowers the cost of building software, but that doesn't mean teams should build more — it means they should build bigger. The post warns against...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--qPvKM23u--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2009","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--qPvKM23u--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2009","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Jack Vanlightly","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Jack Vanlightly","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--lIrxyl_V--/f_auto,q_auto/v1781695531/logos/jack-vanlightly?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/jack-vanlightly"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/raise-the-ambition-threshold-jack-vanlightly-l9pfv98vq","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"ai,company-culture,technical-debt","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Jack Vanlightly","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/jack-vanlightly"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Raise the ambition threshold — Jack Vanlightly"}]} ```