1 min lesson
Onsite project rehearsal
Tell someone how to act on this idea: "The onsite is the decision round."
Step 1 of 2
The onsite is the decision round. Cursor's is famously a multi-day, hands-on project with the core team and it grades whether you operate like a teammate or wait to be told what to do.
You can't replicate two days alone, but you can rehearse the muscle. Take an open prompt, scope it in five minutes, work it for 60 to 90, then present a recommendation as if the core team is in the room. The point is to practice autonomy under ambiguity, not to produce a finished system.
Use a prompt with no clean answer: “Design Cursor's bug-triage system from scratch.” or “Stand up a Voice-of-Customer program in your first 30 days.” These mirror the real charter - building the feedback loop from near-zero - and they reward someone who makes decisions over someone who asks permission for each one.