Every engineer has a hefty backlog of projects that will never see the light of day. It's normal. The problem isn't building - it's shipping. I recently launched my side project (shameless plug: crux) and the learning curve was astonishing.
'Works on my machine' became my first lesson. Day one post-launch exposed critical mistakes: failing reactive components, UX friction points, and user interaction patterns I'd never encounter in localhost. Each user session generated more valuable debugging data than months of local testing.
The accountability shifted everything. User feedback created immediate development priorities. Burnout resistance increased - user needs became a stronger motivator than personal development goals. The scope expanded beyond pure development: SEO optimization, user acquisition strategies, production secrets management, deployment pipelines.
Core lesson: SHIP YOUR IDEAS. No project will ever be perfect. Launch with your MVP. Real users generate real engineering problems - and real engineering growth. The technical feedback loop with active users accelerates learning exponentially compared to private testing.
Even failed launches are valuable data points. They expose architectural weaknesses, highlight scaling challenges, and force practical solutions to real problems. If you're building in localhost, you're optimizing for the wrong environment.
Ship it. Debug in production. Learn as you go.
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