My last blog post was in July of 2023. That was two (2) years ago. That is a long time ... a really long time ... too long in fact. Frankly, I am embarrassed.
2 years of social media
What was I doing for 2 years? The title really says it all. I was pretending to be an entrepreneur. I did what I thought was entrepreneurial things but really was just wasting time.
I was going to "build in public" and that required a presence on the Internet. I chose Twitter as my poison and dove right in. I participated in the whole "build an audience" thing.
- I talked about the things I was going to do.
- I posted about my ideas but not progress.
- I dove into conversations about nonsense.
I was busy but nothing got done.
I turned in a social media spectator
Slowly and over time I turned myself into a social media spectator. I cannot blame myself. It is what social media was designed to do. I spent way too much time watching what other people were doing. They were shipping their products. I spent too little time building mine.
When 2025 rolled around I noticed the problem as a problem. I canceled all my paid accounts. If I was not earning money then I was not going to spend it. It was a harsh reality that needed to be faced. I enjoyed being the spectator. It felt safe. I was busy doing things. It was not, however, getting me where I wanted to be.
I needed a plan
I am an engineer at heart. I needed a plan. So what I decided to do is this:
- Stop being a spectator. No posts. No reply guy.
- Pick something small enough to ship and ship it.
- Next, pick something a little bigger and then ship that (rinse and repeat).
AI and LLMs hit me like a ton of bricks. It changed everything about what I was building. Then it paralyzed me.
The reality is that the goal was the same just how it was going to be accomplished has changed. As Steven Pressfield would admonish "now is the time to step into the arena and take the blows."