The Debug-First AI Workflow: Why I Make My Assistant Break Things on Purpose

Most people use AI assistants to write code. I've started using mine to break code first. It sounds counterintuitive, but this one change to my workflow cut my bug rate in half and made code reviews actually meaningful. The Problem With Write-First The default AI coding workflow looks like this: Describe what you want AI writes the code You review it You find bugs (maybe) You fix them Step 4 is where things fall apart. Reviewing AI-generated code is hard because it looks correct. It's well-structured, properly indented, has reasonable variable names. Your brain pattern-matches it as "good code" and skips over the logic errors. I call this correctness theater — the code performs competence without actually being correct. The Debug-First Approach Here's what I do instead: Step 1: Write the Spec (30 seconds) Function: calculateShippingCost(order) - Input: order with items[], destination, shipping_method - Output: { cost: number, estimatedDays: number } - Rules: free shipping over $100, ex