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The Builder · № 16

Version 2.0

Rebuilt a project you'd already finished, made it meaningfully better in a measurable way, and documented what changed and why.

The idea

Version 2 is mostly subtraction. Most kids want to add features. The real work is removing parts that didn't function, simplifying joints that were a pain, cutting whatever you put in to look thorough. The best V2s do less than V1 did and do it cleaner. If your kid's V2 is bigger and more complicated than V1, they didn't learn from V1.

Steps
  1. Use v1 for at least a month before designing v2. You don't know what's broken yet.
  2. List everything that bugged you about v1. That list is the v2 spec.
  3. In v2, remove more than you add.
  4. Document what changed and why.
What counts

A v2 that's measurably better than v1, with notes on the change. A photo of v1 next to v2 is plenty.