This Wasn’t the Plan (But I Like It More)

It started, as most developer disasters do, with good intentions.

"I’ll just fix that one tiny thing," I told myself - the most dangerous lie in tech.

Two hours later I’d rewritten the settings page, built a new component from scratch, added sparkle (because ✨why not✨), and accidentally implemented a feature no one asked for but now I’m obsessed with.

Did I fix the original bug?

Absolutely not.

That’s when Zap burst in - snacks in one hand, semi-feral grin on their face.

“This wasn’t the plan,” I muttered.

Zap pointed at the glowing chaos I’d created. “But you like it more, right?”

This issue is a tribute to the detours. The unplanned brilliance. The dev energy that ignores your task list and says, “What if we just... rebuilt it but cooler?”

You didn’t mess up. You followed the spark. And honestly?

We like it more this way.

This Wasn’t the Plan (But I Like It More)

There’s a moment - right between "I’ll just tweak this" and "oh no, what have I done" - where something strange happens.

Your brain lights up.

Your focus sharpens.

And suddenly you’re five tabs deep into a completely unplanned rewrite of a feature that technically worked just fine this morning.

Welcome to Zap Mode.

The Dopamine Shortcut

This isn’t procrastination. It’s not poor planning.

It’s your brain spotting something shiny, slightly cursed, and going YES.

Most people call it scope creep.

We call it creative flow with jazz hands.

The 2AM Furniture Shuffle, but for Code

Normal brains go to sleep.

ADHD brains go,"What if I rebuilt the onboarding system instead of fixing that typo?"

It’s not logical. It’s not efficient.

But it’s often... brilliant.

You followed the impulse, chased the weird idea, and ended up with something delightful.

You didn’t lose focus. You built sideways.

Chaos Isn’t a Flaw - It’s a Feature

This isn’t broken workflow. It’s neurodivergent innovation.

You might:

• Ignore the ticket and build the thing next to it
• Follow a typo into a full theme redesign
• Accidentally solve a different problem better than the one you started with

It looks messy from the outside.

Inside your brain? It’s exactly how the puzzle fits.

Not Lazy. Not Off Track. Just... Brilliant, Differently.

You don’t need to explain how you work to justify your value.

If your brain wanders, let it.

If the spark says "build this," follow it.

Not every win starts with a plan - but every detour is still part of your story.

Let Zap cheer you on.

Let the duct tape flag wave proudly.

Keep building weird,

Keep chasing sparks,

And if you forget what you were doing - you’re probably onto something better anyway.

So yeah. Maybe you didn’t stick to the plan.
Maybe your "quick fix" became a sentient feature with three modal states and a tooltip that slaps.
Guess what?

That’s still progress.

You followed the spark.
You made your app weirder — and better.
You’re still here, still building, still showing up.

And we love that for you.

See you next Tuesday,
Zap + Simen