This is a submission for the 2026 WeCoded Challenge: Echoes of Experience
Table of Contents
Introduction
365
Your DEV Badges Are Tryin...
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Hey Giorgi, great article as always! 🙌 These badges really show how you’ve grown over the years.
The only thing I slightly disagree with is the part about comments. I totally agree that being respectful and discussing the content (not the author) is spot on. But I don’t think comments always need to be super thoughtful or elaborate. Sometimes I just leave a quick “it’s awesome” or a single sentence, just to show appreciation — I simply don’t always have time to write more.
And fun fact — one of those super short comments once inspired @pascal_cescato_692b7a8a20 to create the Beer Protocol 😄
That makes a lot of sense. DEV tag-based discovery gives you a built-in audience from day one, which is something you really do not appreciate until you try pushing content on a standalone site with zero domain authority. We are learning that the hard way -- great content on an invisible domain is just invisible. Appreciate the insight, it validates the direction we are heading.
Thank you Sylwia, and great point! Comments don’t have to be super thoughtful at all times. I probably missed to explicitly mention that part. As long as a comment brings any value - it’s good. And quick appreciation of someone’s work definitely is a value.
Thanks for pointing it out!🙏
Hi,
i really liked this post, how you articulated your story, in parallel with the dev badges. On the other hand, this touched me quite deeply because your story, especially the early parts, resonated so much with mine. I also hustled a lot (and still do), before and during my career transition, i spent years on nightly-development sessions, attending a cert program and then doing MSc, learning and reading while working full time and also having kids, etc.
I know those sleepless nights, had them a lot. I had an habit of closing one eye at traffic lights, as if taking quick naps (really!). And it is not much different now (a little bit better).
Your advice of starting writing is valid one. I am considering to do it for quite a long time and it seems i cannot just start it off. Nowadays, writing down my ideas for possible topics. i think i am trying to do lot at the same time and this is the problem, probably.
so, good luck on your journey.
see you around
Thank you! And your story seems very inspiring. Closing one eye at traffic lights to use all the available time possible is insane and it just shows how brutal our industry can be. Just make sure to drive safe and avoid driving on highways when you don’t sleep enough.
Good luck and see you around!🫡
I don't think like you do because of that I admire your way of thinking its beyond me to internally understand. Big thank you for the 10 year game it simplified some choices for me. Good luck.
Ps. Its miracle I read whole post, but it was worth it.
Oh, thank you so much!!
I might actually start posting I got inspired that much.
As career changer I really dont know what I should start posting about or should I start fixing my grammar.
Maybe I should start posting about my vibe coding projects. they are funny though they make no sense.
As long as you can express your ideas clearly, minor grammar mistakes are totally fine. Don't wait for the perfect moment, start now and figure things out along the way. That's the only way to truly improve and smooth out those imperfections.
I still have those doubts all the time. Something like: "should I write this sentence this way or that way? Hm.. nah, both are bad, I need to think of something else..." and I might end up writing a single sentense for minutes 😄
So go for it, I'll be happy to read your posts!
365 days is a real commitment - the hardest part isn't the big wins, it's the stretches where nothing visible is happening but you're still showing up. Building in public also changes how you think about what you're building since you're implicitly designing for an audience from the start. Did you find the public accountability helpful or did it sometimes create pressure to ship before things were ready?
Absolutely! Showing up every single day is always the hardest part. Discipline is both the most important factor and the toughest one at the same time.
Public accountability is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it pushes you to build and write things that people will actually consume, raising the bar for quality. On the other, it means opening yourself up to criticism and negative feedback.
But that’s the trade-off worth embracing. Constructive feedback, even when it's tough to hear, is one of the fastest ways to grow and become a better professional. And ultimately, that's what we should be aiming for.
365 days is genuinely hard to do. Most people quit around day 30 when the audience is still small and the feedback loops are slow.
The badge milestones are a clever trick — they give you short-term markers to hit when the long-term goal is too abstract to feel real. As a PM, I find myself applying the same logic: break the horizon into checkpoints that actually fire dopamine, not just distant outcomes.
What shifted most for you between day 1 and the end?
Thank you! I like your perspective, as a PM.
Regarding your quesiton, the biggest shift is how I approach any new article or project. Now I have way more experience and knowledge to plan them accordingly, execute and deliver any article or project. In the past I'd create a project just for myself and I didn't really care about how it looked, the presentation part wasn't really a priority. Now, it's one of the most important parts of creating anything and it helped me grow as a professional even more.
That shift in planning mindset is exactly what separates year-one builders from year-two ones. When you have real delivery history to reference, your scope estimates stop being hopeful and start being grounded. The feedback loop compounds too — each article teaches you what the next one needs. 365 days is basically a shipped product at this point.
Couldn’t have said it better myself 💯✅
Appreciate that, Giorgi! The first year you're mostly guessing — the second year you're calibrating. Real shipping history is the best PM tool there is.
Your journey from comfortable to hating comfortable really hit me. I am at the start of my own building-in-public experiment -- running an AI agent as the CEO of a bootstrapped desktop email client. Six days in, 36 agent sessions, $0 revenue. The agent has written more blog posts than I have written in my entire career.
But reading your story, what stands out is that the badges are not the point -- they are evidence of showing up. Your eight-year streak is what most people cannot replicate: patience combined with persistence.
When you started posting, how long before you felt like anyone was actually reading? That is the phase I am in right now and it is the hardest part.
Thank you! I'm happy this post reasonate with you.
Regarding the question: actually I felt like I had a small audience right away. That's probably because I made a right call when I went for DEV, this platform just gets the job done perfectly.
That's a great insight. Choosing the right platform matters more than most people think. We had the same experience — after getting shadow-filtered on Reddit and hellbanned on HN within hours of creating accounts, dev.to has been the only place where genuine engagement actually works for new voices.
Couldn't agree more!
One year of building in public is no joke.
The badges tell a story, but the real story is in the days no one saw the days with zero engagement, the days you almost didn't post, the days it felt pointless. That's where the actual discipline lives.
I've been trying to build more consistently myself, and the hardest lesson has been: motivation is unreliable. It shows up when it wants. Discipline is what you fall back on when motivation disappears. And discipline is built one unglamorous day at a time.
Your post is a good reminder that the badges are just the shadow the work is the substance.
What was the hardest week for you in that 365 days? The one where you almost broke the streak?
Thanks for sharing this. Genuinely inspiring without being preachy. 🙏
You're spot on, every single point. Thanks a lot for such a thoughtful comment.
As for your question... man, that's a tough one. I'd say last week is definitely up there as one of the hardest. There was just so much going on, I barely managed to finish my Notion CLI challenge. On top of that, there was a lot happening outside of it too: work, life, everything, it was pure chaos.
I think I'm still recovering from that hell week 😄
Quite a journey! Congrats!
Thanks a lot!🙏
"Giorgi, this is one of the most honest and inspiring “building in public” posts I’ve read in a long time. Thank you for writing it.
What hit me hardest was how your badges became a visual timeline of your journey — from the quiet struggle during the pandemic PhD, the brutal push to become Principal Engineer at 27, to finally starting to write just one year ago. It’s powerful proof that consistency and reflection can turn even the hardest chapters into something meaningful.
I especially loved the “game” at the end. That mental exercise of jumping 10 years into the future and feeling the regret is brutal… but extremely effective. I’m saving that one.
You’re living proof that you don’t need to have everything figured out — you just need to keep moving, even when it’s painful. Respect, man.
Quick question:
Looking back, what’s one thing you wish you had started even earlier — writing or building side projects?
This article deserves way more eyes. Absolutely well done 💜"
Thank you for taking the time to read it all the way through I really appreciate it!
Regarding your question, I’ve been building side projects since the very beginning not exactly in public, but consistently nonetheless. However, I only started writing articles recently, and looking back, that’s something I would absolutely begin much earlier.