I tend to obsess with detail[*] and used to be quite self-conscious about my work. I am yet to find a small project I regretted sharing with people. You spend

I tend to obsess with detail[*] and used to be quite self-conscious about my work. I am yet to find a small project I regretted sharing with people. You spend weeks working on something that never leaves a GitHub repo. Then, 3 years later, you see someone else, implementing a similar idea and sharing it. "this could've been me, if I wasn't such a coward", "my project was better because of x and y", or: "I'll never get anything done in my life" are the usual types of rumination that kick in. I know will resonate with some of you. So, now to keep myself in check I try to: 1. build toys, things that are too small to overthink them (https://sonnet.io/posts/reactive-hole/ https://sonnet.io/posts/reactive-hole/) 2. have a place where I keep intentionally shitty, unfinished drawings(important meeting notes): https://potato.horse https://potato.horse The point of 1) is to build things that just give me joy, they don't have to solve a particular problem. The point of 2) is to get more comfortable with things that are messy, broken. It feel more honest when I put unfinished doodles there. I don't care if people think they're ugly. (spoiler: people like my shitty drawings more than anything I try to make look perfect) With 1 and 2 it's just easier for me to get things out there, talk to people, learn that besides some parts of HN or Twitter, people are more likely to be excited about whatever the thing you're doing is, instead of judging you. I wish I had this mindset 20 years ago. ---- [*] which is somewhat ironic as I used to train people in prototyping and love hackathons