There's a vulnerability in showing your work before it's perfect. In sharing the messy middle, the failed experiments, the iterations that didn't quite land.
But there's also power in it.
The Old Way
For years, the conventional wisdom was clear: work in silence. Perfect your craft behind closed doors. Only reveal the finished product, polished and complete.
This approach has merits. It protects your ideas. It presents you at your best. It maintains mystique.
But it also creates distance. It makes success seem effortless, failure non-existent, and the creative process invisible.
Why I Build in Public
1. Accountability
When you share your goals publicly, you create accountability. Others are watching, expecting updates. This external pressure becomes internal motivation.
2. Community
Building in public attracts others on similar journeys. It creates connections, collaborations, and friendships that wouldn't otherwise exist.
3. Learning Through Teaching
Explaining your process forces clarity. Writing about why you made a decision deepens your understanding of it.
"The best way to learn is to teach. The best way to understand is to explain."
4. Compounding Value
Every post, every update, every shared insight becomes content that lives on. It compounds over time, building a body of work that represents your journey.
What I Share
- Progress updates: What I'm working on, what's shipping
- Technical decisions: Why I chose one approach over another
- Failures: What didn't work and what I learned from it
- Thoughts: Raw ideas, observations, questions
What I Don't Share
Building in public doesn't mean sharing everything:
- Client work under NDA
- Ideas that need time to develop
- Personal matters that aren't relevant to the work
- Things that would harm others
The Practice
Here's how I approach it:
- Weekly updates: Regular cadence creates habit
- Process over polish: Share the work, not just the result
- Honest reflection: Don't sugarcoat the struggles
- Engagement: Respond to feedback, answer questions
The Results
Building in public has:
- Connected me with incredible people
- Held me accountable to my goals
- Created a portfolio of my thinking
- Made the journey more enjoyable
Your Turn
You don't need a huge following to start. You don't need to be an expert. You just need to be willing to share, to be vulnerable, to show up consistently.
Start small. One post. One update. One honest reflection on what you're building and why.
The audience will come. More importantly, the clarity will come.
What are you building? I'd love to hear about it.