Tools: Open Source My No-bs Building Process

Posted on Feb 3

• Originally published at diegohorse.substack.com

Most people talk about building like it’s about speed. Ship fast… move fast… break things… Really?

The longer I’ve been building stuff, the more I see that the real work happens before anything actually ships. That quiet, slow phase where it doesn’t look like much is happening yet.

I have read many books about creating a startup, product iterations through experiments, finding market fit, and leveraging viral effects. They share a playbook that might work (or pretend to work) in the VC world.

The thing is, the indie-solo-bootstrap reality plays a different game from the silicon-valley-BS-unicorn fantasy. The good news is that there are many great books and resources available for those dreaming of a lifestyle business.

The spark to find my process came from one the first chapters in the MAKE book. It’s a good book for someone who wants to start building things and has no idea where to begin.

As a big fan of the Go Horse methodology, I tend to go straight to the building step. And that’s no good. That was the reason I decided to prioritize more the planning and research steps more in my life. And I wanted to build things that matter. Or at least, things I care about enough to finish. I realized that having a clear path helps when you’re stuck in the “what should I build” loop.

Let’s start with the first one, which is actually creating a list. From now on, I love lists.

Spend a couple of weeks simply listing the problems in your life. (If you don’t have any problems, try making your life a bit more interesting stepping out of your comfort zone)

The Secret: Just write them down. Don’t worry about fixing them yet. It’s harder than it sounds because our brains want to jump straight to the solution. Try to resist that. Just let the problems linger and bother you.

Source: Dev.to