-> Use the basic Astro template for blogs. It is basically enough for a self-hosted blog needs. Using any of the third party themes/templates with a list of features has a bunch of disadvantages. It takes more effort to customize and upgrading to newer versions totally breaks the setup, sucking in hours of your time.
-> VS Code has plenty of Markdown Extensions. Markdown Preview and Frontend Masters come to mind.
Hi OP, I saw your project lists. I think you are on the right track. You are not spending too much time in dev and are experimenting in multiple ideas. You got one notch under your belt. You also seem to be quite an accomplished writer. Thats two.
The next step is to talk to prospects. May be talking to customers was part of your role in your current or previous work? If not, then there are some learnings to do.
If you cannot contact your prospects before you build the product, you cannot sell to them after you build. If I were you I would start by reading Mom Test. It will change how you look at things. But it is not a cure-all. There will be lots of learning to do even about how to contact prospects, how to talk to them to get actionable insights and not genial confirmation etc. (I am currently here).
If you already have a product, it is still ok to do that. You can ask ppl in your target group for testing your product etc. That is also a great learning experience and can lead to rapid development of your product. You will truly believe you have thought through a lot of UX flows and would have done a great job and still uncover a lot of blindspots.
It also helps to learn to market and sell. This will shape how you build your product and how you talk about it. Are you currently working? Does your current company or your previous ones have sales and marketing roles? Do take them out to lunch, talk to them about their product goals, their day to day activities etc. These are some stuff you will be doing when your product is ready to market.
If these make sense to you and need someone to chat with, ping me. Would be happy to compare notes.
Wow! This is something that's been rolling about in my brain but the author has elucidated it in a way beyond the thought and attention I gave this.
Anecdotally, I have seen and `read` multiple founders' posts and comments detailing the mistakes they have made, year after year, month after month.. and I went and made most of the mistakes all over again. I still see others follow the same path.. But why don't we apply the advice we read so often and makes so much sense?
I believe while the reading the articles, the advice resonates and makes sense but when we go into real world, it gets messy.. It is harder to notice the patterns. But one thing is true, when we do make those mistakes, we can then hark back to that advice and realize the wisdom in them. Atleast after that, it gets easier to not fall into those traps again and the advice is internalized.
So, what is the use of writing about your hard-learned advice, you ask?
1. We start noticing the patterns earlier thanks to the memory of the advice humming there at the back of your mind and so the learning is faster.
2. It gives one courage and confidence to get up, dust oneself off and try again, cause others have done that before me or you.
* Unlike how technical people often understand these stories, development is a smaller part of the story. From my own experience, it is a huge journey to understand marketing and sales. We generally undervalue marketing and sales in programming forums. Every founder has to pay their dues to cross this chasm and see success.
* Very few startups, probably a infinitesimal number, are overnight successes. Startups are actually a long grind. There are a lot more lows than highs and the lows tend to be really low. The effect is even worse when you go solo. It took the author 5 years to breach the 5K MRR ceiling. That's a long timeframe and it takes a great amount of fortitude, patience and persistence to stay focused, keep learning and handle uncertainty in the face of lack of visible progress (you are actually learning even in failures but it often doesn't feel good).
I faced this too but I attributed it to some obscure bug or setup issue. Seems like I am not alone.
Google sheets takes forever to load (Just 150 records on the biggest sheet. 9 other sheets with paltry records). Any keypress or scroll takes 10 seconds or more to take effect. I am torn between getting work done and being annoyed by how I am forced to use Chrome. Didn't yield, yet.
I think I might understand how you feel. You need a human connection and someway to make an impact in this ephemeral world.
Have you considered some form of mentoring of young people who are willing to learn? It could be in the course of your work or could be related to some hobby.
I believe it could be a rewarding experience to share your experiences with someone who could benefit from it and see them thrive.
I have always had good experience with Thinkpad T series. But anything outside Lenovo's business range laptops is usually terrible. It's like an entirely different company! Had a terrible experience with IdeaPad and it died just after a year :(
VS Code for editing.
Points to Ponder
-> Use the basic Astro template for blogs. It is basically enough for a self-hosted blog needs. Using any of the third party themes/templates with a list of features has a bunch of disadvantages. It takes more effort to customize and upgrading to newer versions totally breaks the setup, sucking in hours of your time.
-> VS Code has plenty of Markdown Extensions. Markdown Preview and Frontend Masters come to mind.