Working with the Garage Door Up
I've worked on some cool tech over the last couple of years
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}... but no one knows this. These efforts languish in private code repositories and in my fading memory.
A Forgotten Era
In my early 20s, I wanted acceptance from the peers I respected so dearly. At the time, I had a list of people I'd like to meet. That list included: Paul Irish, Guillermo Rauch, TJ Holowaychuk, Rasmus Anderson, Soleio Cuervo, Tom Preston-Werner and Adam Wiggins.
I went all-in on open source software and I eventually managed to make a small name for myself with projects like Cheerio, X-Ray and Duo. I'm proud to say that through luck and hard work I managed to meet everyone on that list.
As I found acceptance in the industry, I came to learn that this acceptance was hollow. During this time, I met others who were "internet famous" and learned that it didn't make them happier.
By my late 20s, I realized acceptance from my peers wasn't worth chasing after all. What I actually wanted was to make money off my work, so I could afford to make more work.
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}I turned inward and focused on closed-source commercial products. The tech I built at that time was in service of these products. Closed-source and application-specific. During this time I launched Standup Jack and experimented many other ideas.
While I was able to find some financial stability, I lost something along the way. I stopped sharing my ideas publicly. For 2021, I'd like to change that.
Opening the Garage Door
I discovered the concept of "working with the garage door up" from my friend Calvin[1].
Rather than building everything in secret, I'll be sharing the sawdust[2] as I go along. This writing will be tied to interests that I'm exploring.
I hope that by sharing ideas and progress, I'll connect with like-minded peers working on similar things and maybe we'll work together on some of these ideas.
Follow Along
Some ideas for blog posts to come:
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}If you'd like to subscribe, you can drop your email address below.
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There's also an RSS feed.
Say Hello
Lastly, I'd like to hear from you. Anytime about anything. I'm happy with a "hello" but since I've managed to hold your attention for this long, I'll assume we share some common interests. Tell me what's on your mind. What do you find interesting?
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}Footnotes
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"content": "https://twitter.com/dvassallo/status/1232682578928226304",
"url": "https://twitter.com/dvassallo/status/1232682578928226304"
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}Leftovers
A Forgotten Era
In my early 20s, I wanted acceptance from the peers I respected so dearly. At the time, I had a list of people I'd like to meet. That list included: Paul Irish, Guillermo Rauch, TJ Holowaychuk, Rasmus Anderson, Soleio Cuervo, Tom Preston-Werner and Adam Wiggins.
I went all-in on open source software and eventually managed to make a small name for myself after releasing projects like Cheerio, Duo and X-Ray. I'm proud to say that through my work and some serendipitous luck I did manage to meet everyone on that list.
As I found acceptance in the industry, I came to learn that this acceptance was hollow. During this time, I met others who were "internet famous" and learned that it didn't make them happier or more financially successful.
By my late 20s, I realized acceptance from my peers wasn't worth chasing after all. What I actually wanted was to make money off my work, so I could afford to make more work.
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}I turned inward, focusing on closed-source commercial products. The tech I built at that time was in service of these products and also closed-source and application-specific. During this time I launched Standup Jack and experimented with a host of other ideas.
But I lost something along the way. I stopped sharing my ideas publicly.
The pendulum had swung too far in the other direction.
By my late 20s, I had learned a whole lot more about building and maintaining reliable software. With this knowledge, my standards for quality increased. Also my ambition increased. I had all these new powers
Big Ideas + Perfectionism ā Accountability = Never shipping anything to anyone
My standards for shippable software increased. On top of that
with projects like Cheerio and X-Ray.
during this time and gains a small following with projects like Cheerio and X-Ray.
In many ways, I've forgotten a part of me. In my early 20s, I wanted to be accepted by my peers in the industry. I found my footing with open-source projects like Cheerio and X-Ray. While these projects brought , they didn't pay the bills and eventually my focus shifted towards becoming financially independent.
I turned inward, focusing on closed-source commercial products.
As I learned more about software,
My standards also increased as I learned more.
How we got here
In my early 20s, my main goal wanted attention and acceptance from my peers. I worked on many open source projects during this time and gains a small following with projects like Cheerio and X-Ray.
As I found acceptance in the industry, I came to learn that this acceptance was hollow. During this time, I met others who were "GitHub famous" and I found it didn't make them happier or more financially successful.
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}By my late 20s, I realized acceptance from my peers wasn't worth chasing after all. What I actually wanted was to make money off my work, so I could afford to make more work.
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}It was during this period that I moved to Vietnam in search of more affordable living. While in Vietnam, I launched https://standupjack.com/. There's a lot more I want to say about this time, but for the purposes of this post, I'll say this was a very special time. My expenses were low and I was earning some money from Jack. I could afford to explore my interests.
Standup Jack became my conduit for learning. I learned how to build a reliable conversational bot, how to manage infrastructure on AWS and how to write Go.
At this point, you may have already noticed a blindspot. Where is talking to customers, building new features and reaching new audiences? You see, I was choosing which parts of the business to work on. The technology flourished but the business rotted. I owned the business entirely, so I had no accountability to anyone but myself.
As a result, I wasn't product-focused and my competitors left me in the dust. Today Jack limps along making a couple hundred dollars a month while the top competitor in the space makes $50k/month. I have no one to blame but myself.
I've built up all this cool tech in service to Jack but my customers don't care that their bot runs on a lambda function written in Go, talking to a Postgres database through a generated database client. They just want a tool that helps them manage their team more efficiently.
Now into my early 30s, I won't be making this mistake again. I'm more careful to align my interests with what I'm building. With age and routine, I've also developed a higher tolerance for doing unglamorous work.
Lastly, I developed a conviction that I... can... do this. I can build something that sustains a livelihood. I can build something that makes money while I sleep. I'm more determined than ever.
It was during this time I turned inward. The products I launched were in private codebases and the technology that powered these products live there too.
Big Ideas + Perfectionism ā Accountability = Never Shipping