Archmage of Analysis Paralysis
One more benchmark and we'll know
The Archmage never met an AI tool they couldn't spend another week evaluating. Before the team can adopt a coding assistant, the Archmage needs to benchmark it against four alternatives, run it on three representative codebases, and produce a comparison matrix that belongs in a peer-reviewed journal.
- Symptom
- Output is exclusively preparatory: evaluation documents, comparison spreadsheets, proof-of-concept repos. Calendar full of meetings about tools rather than meetings using tools. When pressed for a recommendation, they hedge.
- Why it matters
- The Archmage's cost is pure delay, but delay compounds. While they evaluate, the team doesn't build shared practices. When adoption finally happens, there's no institutional knowledge, no conventions, no guardrails.
- What the chapter gives you
- How to set decision deadlines with teeth, why most AI tool choices are low-stakes and reversible, and the bounded evaluation role that turns the Archmage into an asset.
Parent Class
From Volume 1 of The AI Developer's Field Guide
Read the full chapter in The AI Developer's Field Guide.
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