Building in public is uncomfortable. You share half-baked ideas, broken prototypes, and revenue numbers that might embarrass you. But it's also the best thing I've done for my work.
Here's what I've learned after two years of doing it.
Accountability that actually works
The classic advice is to "tell a friend your goals." Building in public is that, but at scale. When I announce I'm shipping something, I ship it. Not because people are watching — most aren't — but because the act of writing it down makes it real.
The audience doesn't matter. The intention does.
The feedback flywheel
Every time I post about what I'm building, something useful comes back:
- A bug I hadn't noticed
- An edge case I hadn't considered
- Someone who needs exactly what I'm building
- Someone who built something similar and wants to collaborate
You can't replicate this by staying quiet. The quality of feedback scales with the honesty of what you share.
It compounds
The first post gets 12 views. The tenth gets 80. The fiftieth gets picked up by someone with an audience. This isn't about virality — it's about consistency creating surface area.
Every post is a searchable artifact that says "this person ships things." Over time, that's worth more than any resume.
What I share
I don't share everything. Here's my filter:
- Ship updates: what launched, what changed, what's next
- Learnings: things I got wrong, things that surprised me
- Numbers: revenue, users, growth — when they're meaningful to the story
- Process: how I think about problems, not just the solutions
I don't share: vendor drama, customer specifics, or anything that would embarrass someone else.
The compounding identity
When you build in public consistently, something subtle happens: you start to become "the person who ships things." That identity then attracts collaborators, early users, and opportunities that wouldn't find you otherwise.
It's a slow loop. But it compounds.
If you're building something, start sharing it. One post a week. Be honest about where you are. The worst outcome is that nobody reads it — which is where everyone starts anyway. The accountability loop works best when you're also shipping before you're ready.