What AI Taught Me About Sharing Context With Humans

The first time I asked an AI to “fix my code,” it gave me something that compiled… but made absolutely no sense.

The problem wasn’t the AI — it was me. I hadn’t told it what I was actually trying to do, why the code existed, or what success even looked like.

And that’s when it hit me: I’ve seen this exact thing happen on software teams for years.
We do the same thing to each other.
We assume people can read our minds.

When I Left My Team Guessing

I’ve done it plenty of times.
Pushed up half-finished code thinking, “They’ll get it.”
Fixed a bug without explaining why I made a tradeoff.

At the time it felt efficient. But later someone had to stop and retrace my steps, trying to understand what I was thinking. It slowed everyone down.

It’s the same as giving AI a bad prompt — you don’t get what you expect because you didn’t provide enough context.

What AI Taught Me About Context

Working with AI reminded me of a few simple truths that also apply to working with people:

• Be explicit. AI needs details. So do your teammates. Clear commits, comments, and TODOs save hours later.
• Use the right language. AI can’t guess what you mean — neither can humans. Clarity beats cleverness every time.
• Keep it current. Stale prompts confuse AI; stale tickets confuse teams.
• Leave breadcrumbs. If you want continuity, you have to leave a trail someone else (or future you) can follow.

Context Is a Gift

Leaving context isn’t busywork. It’s a gift — to your future self, your team, and even your AI assistants.
It’s how progress keeps moving when you’re out sick, pulled into another meeting, or switching projects.

That’s why I built imdone — to leave context right where we work: in the code.
Because whether you’re collaborating with humans or AI, context isn’t optional.
It’s the difference between chaos and clarity.