I don't know that I'd agree that you lost a year of your life. Rather, I think it took you a year to learn a valuable lesson and to learn it relatively early in

I don't know that I'd agree that you lost a year of your life. Rather, I think it took you a year to learn a valuable lesson and to learn it relatively early in life. For most of us "tech types," building stuff is the easy part. Telling other people about it, about why they should use it, why it's better than the other guys' -- that's the part we struggle with. You tried something difficult and learned something valuable. I hope your relationship survived/survives the experience, but remember that life is itself a series of experiences. That's what I would take away from this: it was a new experience, I learned something, and I came out of it on the other side a wiser person.