Everyone says:
Build in public.
Share your journey.
Be transparent.
But no one talks about how it actually feels.
In the beginning, I used to ...
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I never build a side project, until now, that I wanted to maintain. Most of the time it were experiments to see if the ideas i had were viable or not.
This year I had an itch that I needed to scratch when it comes to ORM's. And that ended up as the first iteration of a library.
More than people using the library, I want to educate and be educated.
Because I take it slow I don't feel pressure. I'm a bit disappointed the posts don't get much view, but I'm happy with all the views and reactions I do get.
When I was reading your post I was thinking do people really have those expectations about building in public? But once I got to your shift it clicked, it was a set up for the conclusion.
I have no doubt there are people that do it for the wrong reasons.
From my experience, slow is not bad. It can give you the time you need to reflect on all the information and channel it into a project that is meaningful for you.
I really appreciate this.
Slow really isn’t bad, it gives space to learn, improve, and actually care about what we’re building.
I love that your library came from curiosity first, not pressure.
Thanks for sharing your perspective, it adds a lot to the conversation.
The other day I told my friend that when I built and released my very first app I got so disappointed that it didn’t blow up immediately and how I learned that your app might be awesome and completely invisible at the same time. I suppose it had the desired effect as she looked a bit disappointed.
So in that sense I totally agree: building an authentic relationship with the audience is the best way to build an audience and building in public does just that.
Ironically I can’t get a consistent response here. Sometimes my article gets lots of engagement and most of the times people don’t notice it at all despite of a big following count.
What’s y’all way of managing it? Individual newsletters? Other platforms?
Yeah, same here, some posts pop, most don’t.
I just keep sharing the journey and connecting with whoever shows up.
A newsletter does sound like a good idea though.
I don't know ... I think I'd choose to keep a "diary", and then share interesting tidbits as blog posts - the idea that you HAVE to share everything publicly 24/7 feels like a huge commitment, and might become really burdensome ...
Exciting? Yeah, the initial buzz is real—but it fades. Not sure how long I can keep talking to myself without going a little insane.
Exhausting? Definitely. I didn’t choose the easy workflow, but I still have to push through… so future me can read it and make sense of the chaos.
So yeah both.
It's the same with me. Some posts with some of the brilliant ideas and most complex use of programming have like least views and least engagement and the mid kind of projects get more engagement and it gets really confusing sometimes. Still pushing through.
Almost everyone who starts building in public and show their work, go through the same thing.
I stuck into the same problem. Build open source, but it feels like no one care.
At end the end you just need to document your project and share insights.
Exactly, at the end, building in public is about you more than the audience.
It's the same with me. Some posts with some of the brilliant ideas and most complex use of programming have like least views and least engagement and the mid kind of projects get more engagement and it gets really confusing sometimes. Still pushing through.