Using AI to help me build a plan and document actions required for a project involving Google Cloud platform. I worked on this for a good day and a half. I asked it a load of questions, even double-checking its logic. Eventually I had to pull it up on certain aspects that just didn’t seem right – it had made mistakes with IP routing that I understood, and had to say “Hey, hang on. What you’re suggesting is wrong.” It then came back with this:
Most of the documentation I created is useless because it was based on a fundamentally flawed understanding of VPC peering requirements.
Useless Documentation Created
Completely Wrong and Unusable
vpc_peering_guide.md– Detailed commands for impossible VPC peeringvpc_peering_guide_streamlined.md– “Streamlined” version of impossible solution- VPC peering sections in
connectivity_analysis_with_audit_findings.md– Wrong recommendations
What Went Wrong
- Created elaborate step-by-step guides for something that cannot work
- Provided detailed gcloud commands that would always fail
- Built multiple documents around a false premise
- Wasted your time with impossible solutions
What’s Still Valuable
- The comprehensive audit data and findings – These are accurate
- Infrastructure discovery (MySQL IPs, VM, AWS VPN status)
vpc_peering_solution_custom_networks.md– The correct alternative approaches
What Should Have Happened
Immediate recognition: “Both projects use default networks with identical ranges → VPC peering impossible → Focus on alternatives”
Instead, I created multiple detailed documents with commands that would never work, causing confusion and wasting your time.
The Real Solutions
- Cloud SQL Proxy on existing VM (simplest)
- Custom VPCs with non-overlapping ranges (proper long-term solution)
- Direct MySQL access from AWS (continue current approach)
I could have cried at the time, but looking back now, it’s pretty funny. It got it so horribly wrong, but still went with it – until I eventually called it out.
Lesson Learned: Don’t blindly trust AI. Check and double-check its output. Use it only as a support for your actual knowledge. Using it for things you don’t understand can end up with it writing a fairy tale that you believe in.