Revelation of a hacker

Throughout my career, I’ve thought of myself as a product engineer. I always started projects with users in mind. But as I got deeper into coding, I’d often lose sight of that initial focus, spending time on aspects that mattered more to me as a coder, a hacker, someone who genuinely enjoys tinkering with code.

Just last week, while developing rssfeedasap, I found myself deep-diving into the code, contemplating refactoring a section that, in all honesty, didn’t require any changes given the app’s current scale and simplicity.

I had to stop and ask myself, “Why am I doing this? I’m still trying to figure out if people even want this product or in what form or shape would they want it. I’m not even sure how to make money from it, and I don’t have many users. Is this the best way to spend my time?”

The clear answer was: NO. If I’m using my free time to build something, I should make sure it’s worth it. If not, it would be better to spend time with friends, exercise, cook, watch a movie, or something else.

As an indie developer, it’s all too easy to lose sight of the primary goals and focus effort on things that don’t really matter. — me on x.com