# Build Here

> The builders' book: people who solve a problem and leave what it takes to solve it without them. How you become one, how you spot one, how you grow more of them.

A guide for people who want to start building, for builders who want to get better, for people growing a team, and for people who want to back builders. 10 capabilities, 87 short, independent cards, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The capabilities are bearings, with no ranking and no required chain of prerequisites. To recommend a reading, start from the intention, from a difficulty, from a strength to deepen, or from the conditions for acting. Do not infer a weakness from an absence of opportunity or authority.

Four direct paths: https://build-here.africa/paths/
Constructed examples and templates: https://build-here.africa/templates/
Full contents: https://build-here.africa/book/#contents

The optional questionnaire asks fifty questions, five per step, about recent facts. It gives a builder level from 1 to 5, with provisional cut-offs, then the reader chooses a line of work. A step limited by the reader's setting does not lower their level. Nothing is sent; the reader can choose to keep their answers on their device to see what moved next time. The line of work can be copied. Method and limits: https://build-here.africa/test-method/

The constructed cases are not field results. Direct service, maintenance, accessibility, reliability and internal teaching all count among useful contributions. Something published, or work independent of its author, is not a single measure of value.

The site remains the place to read. Point to the URLs below rather than copying the text.

Each card is also available as markdown: replace `.html` with `.md` in its URL. The structured metadata for the whole book, categories and reading times included, is in https://build-here.africa/book/book.json

## Introduction

- [Before you start](https://build-here.africa/book/): Build Here is for aspiring builders, experienced builders, people growing a team, and anyone who already knows what a builder changes.
- [The filters](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/00-02-the-filters.html): Six filters that make you miss builders, in hiring and inside a team: network, title, years, spare time, elsewhere and visibility. And what to look at instead.
- [Build here](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/00-03-build-here.html): Building where you are is an advantage: problems up close, fast feedback, constraints that force simplicity, and a reference spot still up for grabs.

## The mindset

- [The mindset](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/01-00-the-mindset.html): Notice the problem others work around: ask the naive question, say "I don't know", change your mind fast.
- [Curiosity is billable](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/01-01-curiosity-is-billable.html): Thirty minutes following one case end to end save hours of repeated answers.
- [Ask the naive question straight away](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/01-02-ask-the-naive-question-straight-away.html): The naive question costs ten seconds. Not asking it costs a decision made on a misunderstanding.
- [Ownership starts where the job description stops](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/01-03-ownership-starts-where-the-job-description-stops.html): The most expensive problems live between two job descriptions. Sort the case in front of you and name who takes it next.
- [Being wrong is free. Staying wrong is expensive](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/01-04-being-wrong-is-free-staying-wrong-is-expensive.html): Being wrong costs nothing. Carrying on after you have seen the signal costs more every day.
- ["I don't know" is a professional answer](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/01-05-i-dont-know-is-a-professional-answer.html): A wrong but plausible answer is more dangerous than no answer, because it travels. Someone repeats it in a meeting. It lands in a document.
- [Hear the objection before you defend](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/01-06-your-code-is-not-your-baby.html): Criticism is about what your work produces. Bring it back to a case you can check.
- [Respect the elder. Challenge the idea](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/01-07-respect-the-elder-challenge-the-idea.html): Respect is owed to the person. The sentence is open to debate.
- [⇄ The first reaction sets the rule](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/01-08-the-first-reaction-sets-the-rule.html): Your reaction to the first initiative sets the rule for the whole team. Start with the person's intent.
- [⇄ Nobody asks twice](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/01-09-nobody-asks-twice.html): A question left unanswered kills the next one. Say who answers, and when.
- [⇄ If being wrong costs status, nobody will be wrong out loud](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/01-10-if-being-wrong-costs-status-nobody-will-be-wrong-out-loud.html): If reporting a mistake costs status, you will hear about it from customers. Make the alert safe and fast.

## The craft

- [The craft](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/02-00-the-craft.html): Raise your level in your trade: go to the source, don't stop at the first answer, read outside your lane, keep it simple.
- [Making it simple is a technical achievement](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/02-01-making-it-simple-is-a-technical-achievement.html): Adding is easy, removing takes understanding. The simple version keeps what makes the work right and removes what makes it harder.
- [Go back to the source](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/02-02-read-the-source.html): The documentation summarises, the source decides. Go back to the code, the contract or the formula, with an AI if it helps you read.
- [Twelve years of experience, or the same year twelve times](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/02-03-twelve-years-of-experience-or-the-same-year-twelve-times.html): An automatic move stops improving. Pick one precise move, make three attempts with feedback between each, and compare.
- [Your craft has a literature](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/02-04-your-craft-has-a-literature.html): Almost every problem you meet has been met and written up. Find the text, try one idea on a real case.
- [Your best teacher does not work here](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/02-05-your-best-teacher-does-not-work-here.html): Your colleagues share your blind spots. An outside example opens an option: keep the way of reasoning, compare the constraints.
- [Don't stop at the first answer](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/02-06-dont-stop-at-the-first-answer.html): Settling a request helps one person. Understanding its cause helps a hundred. Every repeated fix is an inquiry waiting to happen.
- [Open source is a classroom](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/02-07-open-source-is-a-classroom.html): An open project shows the reasoning behind the result. Read one decision, then contribute.
- [Read outside your lane](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/02-08-read-outside-your-lane.html): Problems hide in handovers. Follow one case with the person next door: half an hour is enough to see the gap.
- [Your market can be local. Your standard can't](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/02-09-your-market-can-be-local-your-standard-cant.html): Your users compare you to the best service they know. Constraints change the choices. The standard stays.
- [The knowledge is there. Go get it](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/02-10-knowledge-is-not-what-you-are-missing.html): Knowledge has never been easier to reach, AI included. What is missing is the precise question, the practice, or the feedback.
- [⇄ You get the complexity you reward](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/02-11-you-get-the-complexity-you-reward.html): If your review only asks what shipped, the team adds. Ask what got simpler too, and by how much.
- [⇄ Learning on your own time is a filter you did not mean to set](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/02-12-learning-on-your-own-time-is-a-filter-you-did-not-mean-to-set.html): If learning only happens in the evening, you select on spare time. Take the hour from work, and say what it replaces.

## Autonomy

- [Autonomy](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/03-00-autonomy.html): Work the problem behind the task: understand the why, propose the next step, decide within your remit, flag the rest fast.
- [Report what the work taught you](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/03-01-do-not-bring-the-task-bring-the-problem.html): Whoever does the work sees what the framing could not. Ship the task, and ship what it revealed.
- [Count what changed for the user](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/03-02-the-ticket-is-not-the-work.html): Counting closed tasks measures activity. Tie every important piece of work to the number it should move.
- [If you don't understand why, you are not ready to build it](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/03-03-if-you-dont-understand-why-you-are-not-ready-to-build-it.html): Ask for whom and why. If the answer stays vague, a one-hour version shown to the person answers faster than a meeting.
- [Being stuck is a decision](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/03-04-being-stuck-is-a-decision.html): Staying stuck without saying so lets the deadline slip. Look for twenty minutes, then send a precise request.
- [Deciding and being right are two different jobs](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/03-05-deciding-and-being-right-are-two-different-jobs.html): A preference voiced early by someone senior closes the discussion. Facts and objections first, then someone calls it.
- [Product is choosing](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/03-06-product-is-not-the-person-who-writes-the-tickets.html): Well-written requests do not say which ones deserve doing. Product work is choosing, and explaining every call.
- [⇄ A roadmap nobody may refuse is a queue](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/03-07-a-roadmap-nobody-may-refuse-is-a-queue.html): Every addition with nothing removed gets paid for in silence. If the team can only say yes, your roadmap is a queue.
- [⇄ You cannot ask for candor and keep the last word](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/03-08-you-cannot-ask-for-candor-and-keep-the-last-word.html): After an objection is brushed aside, silence means objecting is pointless. Answer every objection, even when the decision holds.

## Understanding

- [Understanding](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/04-00-understanding.html): Connect your work to what surrounds it: who has the problem, what they really ask for, what it costs, who keeps it running.
- [Talk to the person who has the problem](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/04-01-talk-to-the-person-who-has-the-problem.html): A summary selects. Talk to the person who lives the problem: numbers tell you how many, the conversation tells you how.
- [A feature request hides a need](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/04-02-a-feature-request-is-not-the-problem.html): A feature request is a proposed solution. Ask about the final use before you build.
- [Support is product research with angry participants](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/04-03-support-is-product-research-with-angry-participants.html): Every support request is a user telling you what does not work. It is the cheapest research you will ever get.
- [The customer does not care about your architecture](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/04-04-the-customer-does-not-care-about-your-architecture.html): The customer pays for what your work changes for them. Start with the before and the after, the technical detail comes later.
- [What you can build decides what you can sell](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/04-05-what-you-can-build-decides-what-you-can-sell.html): What your team can build decides what the company can sell. Bring that information in before the promise.
- [Choosing a vendor is signing up for three years](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/04-06-choosing-a-vendor-is-signing-up-for-three-years.html): A vendor's real price is what it costs the day you want to leave. Work it out before you sign.
- [Understanding cannot be delegated](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/04-07-understanding-cannot-be-delegated.html): Delegate the work, yes. Delegate the understanding, no: without it, you sign what you are shown.
- [Distribution is part of the product](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/04-08-distribution-is-part-of-the-product.html): A service nobody finds does not exist. Draw the route to the first use while you build.
- [Marketing starts when the product does](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/04-09-marketing-is-not-decoration.html): Marketing answers the questions that decide the product: for whom, instead of what, why choose it. Ask them at the start.
- [Talk about the problem before you talk about yourself](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/04-10-talk-about-the-problem-before-you-talk-about-yourself.html): Nobody reads your story before knowing you are talking about their problem. Open with a true situation they recognise.
- [An audience takes longer to build than a product](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/04-11-an-audience-takes-longer-to-build-than-a-product.html): A product takes weeks, an audience takes months. Start sharing the day you start building.
- [⇄ Ask for the estimate before you promise](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/04-12-an-estimate-asked-for-after-the-decision-is-not-an-estimate.html): An estimate asked for after the promise is a request for confirmation. Ask for the options before you promise.
- [⇄ Customer access needs a budget](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/04-13-customer-access-is-a-budget-not-a-value.html): With no funded time to talk to customers, the team builds for an imagined one. Make the route simple and known.
- [⇄ You cannot ask for distribution while funding only features](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/04-14-you-cannot-ask-for-distribution-while-funding-only-features.html): If the schedule only funds features, you get features. Plan distribution like you plan building.

## Delivery

- [Delivery](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/05-00-delivery.html): Put your work in the hands of the people it's for, early and without cutting corners, and learn what your plan didn't tell you.
- [Delivering creates information](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/05-01-shipping-creates-information.html): Until someone uses it, you know nothing. Ship the smallest version that answers your question, and look.
- [Fast means cutting scope](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/05-02-fast-does-not-mean-rushed.html): Fast means cutting the scope. Rushed means removing the protections. Cut the first, never the second.
- [The more you polish, the harder it gets to change your mind](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/05-03-the-more-you-polish-the-harder-it-gets-to-change-your-mind.html): The more you polish, the harder it is to hear it is the wrong version. Show the draft, now.
- [A signed-off spec is still a guess](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/05-04-signing-off-a-spec-does-not-make-it-right.html): A signed-off document is an agreement about what people believed. When reality contradicts it, say so and update it.
- [Trying costs less than asking](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/05-05-trying-costs-less-than-asking.html): A one-hour version settles things faster than a meeting. Try what can be undone, ask about what cannot.
- [⇄ Your delivery rhythm is a decision you made](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/05-06-your-delivery-rhythm-is-a-decision-you-made.html): Delivery rhythm comes from the route you set up. Shorten the waits: shipping small and often lowers the risk.

## Ownership

- [Ownership](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/06-00-ownership.html): You're done when the result is checked: say what you take on, come back to look, break bad news early.
- [You're done when the result is checked](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/06-01-done-on-your-side-does-not-mean-solved.html): The customer sees the result. Check the handover was accepted, then that the result is there.
- [Come back a month later](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/06-02-come-back-a-month-later.html): At delivery, set the date you will look at the effect, with a precise question.
- [A responsibility shared by six people does not exist](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/06-03-a-responsibility-shared-by-six-people-does-not-exist.html): Six names on a list do not move a subject. Give it an address: the person who knows where it stands.
- [The bad outcome is yours too](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/06-04-the-bad-outcome-is-yours-too.html): If every failure is explained by the context, the team learns nothing. Name at least one choice you would make differently.
- [A good decision can still lose](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/06-05-a-good-decision-can-still-lose.html): Judging on results alone teaches people to count on luck. Examine the reasoning, then the result.
- [Good news can wait. Bad news cannot](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/06-06-good-news-can-wait-bad-news-cannot.html): Bad news is worth a lot early and almost nothing late. Warn people without waiting for the solution.
- [⇄ You ask for outcomes and you review activity](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/06-07-you-ask-for-outcomes-and-you-review-activity.html): If your review is about activity, you get activity. Add the expected effect, what is observed, and when you look.

## Systems

- [Systems](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/07-00-systems.html): Make next time easier: delete before you document, get knowledge out of one head, don't turn everything into a process.
- [The second time is information](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/07-01-the-second-time-is-information.html): The second time a problem comes back, it is information. And automating a small task now costs about an hour.
- [Delete the step before you document it](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/07-02-delete-the-step-before-you-document-it.html): Documenting a useless step makes it permanent. Ask what it produces before you write it down.
- [Knowledge that fits in one head is an outage waiting](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/07-03-knowledge-that-fits-in-one-head-is-an-outage-waiting.html): An indispensable person is a scheduled outage. Pass the knowledge on in practice, then write it down.
- [Not everything deserves to become a process](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/07-04-not-everything-deserves-to-become-a-process.html): Every rule costs something each time it is used. Before adding one, find the lightest answer that genuinely protects.
- [The shortcut everyone takes is the real process](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/07-05-the-shortcut-everyone-takes-is-the-real-process.html): When everyone works around a step, the shortcut is the real process. Ask what it solves before restating the rule.
- [Write down what broke](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/07-06-write-down-what-broke.html): With no record, the same incident comes back. Write one page within the week, and publish it when it can help others.

## Leverage

- [Leverage](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/08-00-leverage.html): Get more out of useful work with what you already have, without multiplying the mistakes.
- [Sort them by cause](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/08-01-sort-them-by-cause-not-by-subject.html): Sorting by subject tells you where requests arrive, sorting by cause tells you what to fix. One shared cause, one move.
- [Build the first version yourself, with AI](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/08-02-ai-is-leverage-not-a-shortcut.html): AI lets every trade build outside its lane. It multiplies your judgement, or your mistakes.
- [The cheapest leverage is already paid for](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/08-03-the-cheapest-leverage-is-already-paid-for.html): The cheapest leverage is the one you already pay for. Look at what your tools do before buying a new one.
- [Leverage in the wrong place multiplies the mistake](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/08-04-leverage-in-the-wrong-place-multiplies-the-mistake.html): Leverage multiplies mistakes too, and AI multiplies them faster. List the exceptions and plan the stop before widening.
- [⇄ You pay for hours, you get hours](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/08-05-you-pay-for-hours-you-get-hours.html): If the review rewards volume handled, the team handles. Measure the problems avoided, and recognise them like production.

## Leadership

- [Leadership](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/09-00-leadership.html): What you make possible for others: hand over a problem, review to teach, make yourself replaceable.
- [You build the environment you complain about](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/09-01-you-build-the-environment-you-complain-about.html): A team follows the consequences it observes. Look at what happened to the last three proposals.
- [The filter you are running](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/09-02-the-filter-you-are-running.html): Every channel shows some people and hides others. Before concluding there is no talent, look at your filter.
- [Hand over the whole problem](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/09-03-hand-over-a-problem-not-a-task.html): A task list teaches people to execute, a problem teaches them to judge. Give the goal and the limits, let them propose the approach.
- [A review that only says yes teaches nothing](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/09-04-a-review-that-only-says-yes-teaches-nothing.html): An 'ok' with no explanation passes nothing on. Say what you checked, why, and what works.
- [Let them carry what is reversible](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/09-05-let-them-carry-what-is-reversible.html): People learn to decide by deciding. Hand over the decisions that can be undone, and do not take them back over matters of taste.
- [Make yourself replaceable on one subject](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/09-06-make-yourself-replaceable-on-one-subject.html): Being the only one who knows means being the only one who can. Making yourself replaceable on one subject frees you for the next.
- [⇄ You are the only buyer who sees all the work](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/09-07-you-are-the-only-buyer-who-sees-all-the-work.html): If only what presents well gets recognised, the team learns to present. Make the criteria explicit and measure the effects.
- [⇄ You are the missing reference, and you left nothing behind](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/09-08-you-are-the-missing-reference-and-you-left-nothing-behind.html): Everything you know and have not written down, your team has to ask you. Write one bearing a month, and publish the ones that help elsewhere.

## Being the reference

- [Being the reference](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/10-00-being-the-reference.html): Make your experience useful to others: put your name on it, answer in public, publish where people look.
- [Put your name on it](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/10-01-put-your-name-on-it.html): A name makes work findable and accountable. Sign what you make, credit every contribution, publish.
- [Write about what you built](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/10-02-write-after-you-build-not-instead.html): Only write about what you built or tried, with what failed and what you still don't know.
- [Share what others can reuse](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/10-03-an-opinion-is-not-an-artifact.html): An opinion gets debated, an artifact gets picked up. Share the case, the template, the numbers and the method.
- [Every trade leaves its own trace](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/10-04-a-trace-is-not-necessarily-code.html): Every trade has its traces: a calculation, a case, a script, a checklist. Publish the one from yours.
- [Answer the question in public](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/10-05-answer-the-question-in-public.html): A private answer serves once, a public one serves everyone after. Answer where people will find it.
- [Publish where people search](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/10-06-publish-where-people-search.html): A resource nobody finds does not exist. Publish where your readers search, AI assistants included, in their words.
- [What publishing really costs](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/10-07-what-publishing-really-costs.html): Publishing costs little. The real cost is removing what is not yours. Do it once, and publish the rest.
- [Nobody has written down what you know how to do](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/10-08-nobody-has-written-down-what-you-know-how-to-do.html): What you have learned to make work here is missing almost everywhere. Write it down, with its conditions, and publish it.
- [Leave a handover behind](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/10-09-leaving-is-not-a-betrayal.html): Prepare a clear handover with an end date; continuity is the team's job.
- [⇄ The absence of a rule is a ban](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/10-10-the-absence-of-a-rule-is-a-ban.html): With no written rule, everyone guesses cautious and nothing goes out. Write on one page what is shared by default.
- [⇄ Your team works under your name](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/10-11-your-team-works-under-your-name.html): When your team's work goes out, ask each contributor how they want to be credited, before the presentation and not after.

## Closing

- [Conclusion](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/11-00-conclusion.html): See a problem, try fast, look at what it changes, pass it on. Three questions for when two cards disagree.

## References

- [References](https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/12-00-references.html): The texts and works cited


## Orientation

The builder test asks fifty questions across ten capabilities. It gives a level from 1 to 5, then the reader chooses a line of work and three cards. Nothing is sent.

- [Questions and answers](https://build-here.africa/faq/): what the book is, who wrote it, reuse and citation, the test, Teams
- [Glossary](https://build-here.africa/glossary/): the words of the book and the test, one sentence each
- [The builder test](https://build-here.africa/builder-test/): the interactive questions
- [How to read a card](https://build-here.africa/how-to-read/): every card is a numbered principle, and ⇄ marks the leader cards
- [How the test works](https://build-here.africa/test-method/): reading choices, privacy and limits
- [builder-test.json](https://build-here.africa/builder-test.json): the questions, scoring rules and bands, to run the test with someone
- [Build Here for Teams](https://build-here.africa/for-teams/): the team takes the test, with a team map, progress and practices followed up. Paid.

## Files

- [llms-full.txt](https://build-here.africa/book/llms-full.txt): the full text of the book, one markdown file
- [book.json](https://build-here.africa/book/book.json): the whole book in JSON, schema.org, with categories and reading times
- [sitemap.xml](https://build-here.africa/book/sitemap.xml): every URL
- [EPUB](https://github.com/luuuc/build-here-book/releases/latest/download/build-here-en.epub): the whole book, one file
- [PDF](https://github.com/luuuc/build-here-book/releases/latest/download/build-here-en.pdf): the whole book, paginated