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Does “building in public” work?

laike9m.com

141–150 of 225 posts

Re: Does “building in public” work?

#141

I really dislike that so much of hacker culture is $$ focused now. 1. Being a hacker means walking the world being constantly dissatisfied by all of the inefficiency you see on a daily basis and wanting to fix it. 2. Being a hacker means feeling like most of the software world is fraudulent and you are going to build a solution that actually works. 3. Being a hacker means building something because it is fun or cool.…

this is a great comment, you took the words out of my mouth and described what I think is wrong with Twitter culture

Re: Does “building in public” work?

#142
Building in public comes down to a few core things: marketing your product, staying sane, and getting noticed. It’s a way to get people talking about what you’re building before it’s even done. The journey itself becomes the story, pulling in an audience that feels connected to your work.

For a lot of solo founders, though, it’s not just about visibility. It’s about support. Building something alone can be isolating, and sharing your progress becomes a way to stay connected, even when you’re grinding away in a room by yourself. The openness keeps you grounded and helps ward off the burnout that comes with long stretches of isolation.

It also puts you on the radar of other entrepreneurs and investors. They see what you’re up to and can offer feedback, partnerships, or even funding without you having to chase them down. You’re essentially creating a public portfolio of your work in real time.

Some people also use it as a humblebrag—a way to show off without being too obvious about it. That’s fine if that’s your thing, but for most, it’s a way to turn the lonely process of building into something more connected and human.

And I think that shouldn’t be discouraged.

Re: Does “building in public” work?

#143
Wow, I looked at that buildinpublic hashtag and got serious stock market trader forum energy feeling from the posts. Yea people are doing work but its the same kinda thing where the stock people will post a 3000 word write up everyday about their market thoughts but are still not really doing anything. Its like energy looking for a place to be used but in the meantime why not run in place till we drop?

I guess this is what kids with rich parents whos trust fund hasnt matured yet do to kill time nowdays?

Re: Does “building in public” work?

#144

Building in public comes down to a few core things: marketing your product, staying sane, and getting noticed. It’s a way to get people talking about what you’re building before it’s even done. The journey itself becomes the story, pulling in an audience that feels connected to your work. For a lot of solo founders, though, it’s not just about visibility. It’s about support. Building something alone can be isolating,…

[deleted]

Re: Does “building in public” work?

#145

Anecdotal, but it seems like all the people who “build in public” end up trapped by their chosen distribution strategy. What I mean by this is, if you’re building in public there’s a 99% chance you’re going to end up building products for other indiehackers who are interested in following people who build in public. This means you’re probably going to end up building yet another micro-Saas dev tool (Saas boilerplate,…

> if you’re building in public there’s a 99% chance you’re going to end up building products for other indiehackers who are interested in following people who build in public.

Every time I dip my toes into indiehacker communities it's this all the way down: Indie hackers building personal brands to sell products to other indie hackers via their Twitter or TikTok.

Re: Does “building in public” work?

#146
post #88

Anecdotal, but it seems like all the people who “build in public” end up trapped by their chosen distribution strategy. What I mean by this is, if you’re building in public there’s a 99% chance you’re going to end up building products for other indiehackers who are interested in following people who build in public. This means you’re probably going to end up building yet another micro-Saas dev tool (Saas boilerplate,…

What your basically saying is: If you build a product for indiehackers, you’ll never be able to sell it beyond that initial target market. I feel like that’s a bit like saying a Social Media platform built for college students won’t never go mainstream. So I’m wondering: is there any product that started as indiehacker product and eventually ended up becoming a mass market product?

Font awesome? They made a huge crowdfunding for a new Web Awesome project with much bigger scope

Re: Does “building in public” work?

#147
For anyone interested in a counter-point (ie; "Transparency is not inherently good and here's why"), the paper "Transparency is Surveillance" is a nice read: https://philpapers.org/archive/NGUTIS.pdf

It basically talks about how people will change their reasoning to suit public opinion when they work publically. You might imagine a scientist who gets a public grant and is required to share their findings publically.

In this hypothetical scenario, let's say their findings are required to be explainable to the public at large. The reality is that when you're building anything (whether it's a theory or a product), the reality is that causes and effects are not always clear nor will they ever be as we see with the human body for example.

As such, while we might think imposing transparency would increase trust, the reality is you'll often find ad-hoc justifications for why things are the way they are rather than just saying "We don't know why X or Y".

The author also presented the same ideas as a talk for anyone who prefers video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcEJY61FKIc

Re: Does “building in public” work?

#148
Author here. I'm glad to see so many meaningful discussions triggered by this post. Despite raising concerns, overall I still see "building in public" as a positive trend. Like all trends, things emerge and change over time, so we'll see how "building in public" evolves.

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I'm also on Twitter/X and Mastodon. I'll share more thoughts in the future:

- https://twitter.com/laike9m

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Re: Does “building in public” work?

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I really dislike that so much of hacker culture is $$ focused now. I don’t think that’s hacker culture. It’s just the mainstream adoption of hacker culture, don’t let it replace the real thing in your mind. When lots and lots of people started playing candy crush on phones, it wasn’t gamer culture that changed, just the public perception of gaming. There are still people out there who conform to the description you…

Thank you for sharing that, it’s awesome to see so many of us still around! (Not trying to gatekeep—anyone can be a hacker, no matter when they start. Just sharing some fun memories—I still remember upgrading from a 386 to a 486, then to a Pentium 133. Or the LAN parties. Or when IRC splits let you take over a popular channel for a while! Fun times! The new tools being built today, especially around AI, are just as e…

>Not trying to gatekeep

You really should. Without gates everything of value is stolen and we're left with nothing but grifters.

Re: Does “building in public” work?

#150
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s not hacking, that’s called a hobby. Hacking is something that challenges social norms or might even get you in trouble.

“hacking” is the challenge of making something work in ways it was never intended - for example unlocking a car with wireless entry using a laptop and DIY electronics instead of the normal car key. Doing it to your own car is obviously very different from stealing someone else’s, however it’s not illegal to “hack” your own car. The theft part is what gets you in trouble.

> it’s not illegal to “hack” your own car

I'm certain some car company will sue you if they get to know that you did.

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