Sharing my Fears: The Uncomfortable Journey of #BuildInPublic

More than a year ago, @johnsBehhary (my manager here @bolt.fun) suggested to us an idea that immediately put me on edge.

"Going forward, we should #BuildInPublic. & share our progress, plans, problems with the community" he said.

While I know that the idea of #BuildInPublic has been gaining some nice attraction lately, to me personally, it felt like a terrifying prospect.

I had several reasons to justify my apprehension:

1. I believed it would be a wasteful diversion, eating up precious time I could otherwise devote to coding.

2. I doubted there would be many people interested in following my software building journey.

3. The thought of making mistakes, and worse, making them in front of everyone, was daunting.

But after going with it for more than a year now, I discovered that these reasons were not as bad as I initially thought. In fact, they were the opposite.

Wasting Time

The process of documenting progress, sharing updates, and engaging with the community seemed like a time-consuming endeavor. I was concerned it would distract me from the actual development work.

Realization: Taking time to reflect on my progress so far, and articulate what I'm doing actually helps reinforce my understanding of the project.

There were MANY times when I was stuck on some aspect of some project.
But when I start breaking it down & writing about it, a solution that wasn't visible would pop up!

It's really useful to take a break from the hacker mode each once in a while, & writing about our progress/problems/plans for others provide a great opportunity to do just that.

Lack of Interest

I had a nagging concern that my work is likely not interesting for anyone.

Like why would anyone care about progress/problems in other people's projects??

Realization: I learned that there's most likely always someone interested in what you're doing.

Especially in our domain where the amount of learning sources are not that much yet.

There was many times where someone reached out to me personally to thank me for something I've written about a long time ago, saying how it helped them in their own projects.

So if what I write end up only helping a single person, I'm satisfied with that.

Additionally, #BuildInPublic isn't only about others, it's also about your personal growth.
Sharing this process benefits the sharer, not just the audience.

Fear of Mistakes

The most significant fear was making mistakes in public. The thought of errors being pointed out by others, the implicit judgment, and the prospect of appearing incompetent was not very appealing (especially when I was new in this domain).

Realization: I developed a healthier perspective on mistakes over time. We all make them. The difference with #BuildInPublic is that these errors get corrected faster, thanks to the collective knowledge of the community. It's a more efficient way to learn and improve.

Also, most of the times, you are your own worst critic. Others don't see your mistakes as badly as you think they are. They are busy judging their own mistakes 😅

Conclusion

Looking back now at my #BuildInPublic journey, it's clear that my initial fears were not only unfounded but were preventing me from enjoying a bunch of benefits.

& that's why I decided to share this. Cause it might help some developer who is in the same shoes now that I were in when I started.

And that's all folks.

Have a nice day 👋