Most AI systems fail before they scale because teams build the “final architecture” too early. Research spikes exist to expose what you don’t understand, not to prove you’re right. The fastest path to a working system is starting with something intentionally simple, validating invariants, and throwing away what doesn’t hold.

00:00 What a research spike actually is
04:15 The real problem: context overload
13:29 Why you should not build the “final system” first
21:42 The cathedral vs farmhouse mistake
33:42 When NOT to use advanced tech like graph RAG
39:04 The unsexy work that actually matters

If your first version feels impressive, you probably built the wrong thing.