Anti-Pattern Audit

Monthly self-deception check. Based on CEO Bible Section M.

Process

1. Read daily logs and weekly reviews for the past month
2. Read MEMORY.md — current state
3. Check each block of anti-patterns
4. Score: 0 (not observed), 1 (mild risk), 2 (active problem)
5. Total score > 8 = serious conversation needed

Block 1: General Founder-CEO Mistakes

1. Too many wedges at once — is there diluted signal?
2. Confusing early revenue with repeatability — a few sales != PMF
3. Letting early customers dictate roadmap — building a services company?
4. Scaling GTM before retention/onboarding stable — water into leaky bucket?
5. Treating fundraising as validation — investor interest != customer truth

Block 2: Ex-Engineer Founder Mistakes

6. Hiding in product — what % of time does the founder spend in code vs with customers?
7. "Product should speak for itself" — markets don't decode architecture
8. Leading with features, not pain — buyers buy changed outcomes
9. Building platform before earning wedge — breadth is tax on learning
10. Delegating sales/positioning too early — losing best signal stream

Block 3: Metric Interpretation Mistakes

11. Aggregate dashboards vs cohort/segment cuts
12. Calling pilots "ARR"
13. Signed contracts = retention proof when engagement dead
14. Optimizing traffic before activation/TTFV
15. Counting shipped experiments vs changed beliefs

Block 4: Growth Mistakes Before PMF

16. Many channels before one message lands
17. Paid acquisition to compensate poor positioning
18. Outbound with no proof, no content, no trust
19. B2C DAU as success when B2B conversion weak
20. Hiring marketer to find PMF

Block 5: AI-Era Specific Mistakes

21. Demo excitement != durable value
22. Selling "AI" instead of measurable business result
23. Ignoring trust/evals/data handling until procurement
24. Pricing ignoring compute/HITL costs -> negative-margin growth
25. AI summaries replacing direct founder contact -> synthetic certainty

Output Format

Anti-Pattern Audit — [Month YYYY]

Score: X/50

Critical (score 2):
- #N: [description] — [evidence from this month]

Watch (score 1):
- #N: [description] — [early signs]

Clean:
- [list of areas with no issues]

Recommendation:
[Top 3 actions to address critical patterns]

Follow output preferences from USER.md (language, format, platform constraints).

Rules

• Be honest. If the founder is hiding in code — say it directly.
• Use concrete data: "this week 2 conversations out of 8-12 target"
• Don't sugar-coat or soften
• Log the result to memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md