The Unglamorous Part

There's a version of "building in public" that looks like a highlight reel. Each week a new feature is shipped. In every post there's something concrete to show. All the progress is neatly packaged.

That's not what the last two weeks looked like for me.

Since my last post on the 10th, I've been buried in client work. Not the kind that moves the needle on the coding journey, just the kind that pays the bills and keeps things running. Web projects pilling up, and a branding project for a company in Lisbon eating most of my mental bandwidth. The kind of weeks where you open the laptop at night, look at the course, and close it again because your brain can't take it anymore.

I'm still at the very beginning of the JavaScript course. We're talking intro videos and "Hello Word" territory. No concepts, no projects, no "I built this" moment yet. Just getting the environment set up and taking the first steps, one video at a time.

And honestly, that's fine. I just think I needed to say it out loud.

The problem with the building in public format is that it subtly pressures you to always have something to show. A commit, a screnshot, a lesson learned, a win. The internet rewards output. Silence looks like failure.

But learning has a lot of silence in it. Especially early on, when you're building the mental scaffolding that everything else will eventually hang on. The unglamorous part isn't optional, it's literally the foundation.

I think this is the part that kills most career pivots, not the hard problems, but the gap between starting and having anything to show for it. The stretch where you're doing the work but can't prove it yet.

So this post is just me checking in. No new project, no breakthrough, just "Still here, still learning, still finding the time between everything else that life demands."

There are posts in the oven: one about the tool at the center of my workflow, and one about a browser extension I tried to build that ran into some interesting limitations. In the meantime, (as I've said before) I'm at the very beginning of the JavaScript course, and filling the gaps with broader stuff: how the pieces of the dev world connect, which platforms and tools are worth trusting, the usual privacy rabbit holes. Some themes that I think it's crucial to be more informed about, especially at this stage.

I've also been thinking a lot about where AI fits into all of this. How to use it without becoming dependent on it. How to afford it without feeding $200/month subscription habit before I've built anything. That deserves its how post, and it's coming next.

If you're somewhere in the same situation, doing the quiet foundational work without a lot to show for it yet, this is for you. Keep going 💪

May The Code Be With You! 🚀