Why I’m Building in Public

Building in public is uncomfortable. It means sharing unfinished work, admitting mistakes, and being honest about the process while it’s still messy.

For a long time I didn’t do it. I’d polish things in private and wait for the “right moment” to show anyone. That moment never came. There was always one more feature, one more design iteration, one more thing to fix.

What changed at the Academy

The Apple Developer Academy changed that for me. The whole environment runs on showing your work early. You share progress with your teammates every day, walk mentors through half-finished ideas, and present to the cohort long before anything feels ready.

At first that felt exposing. Then I noticed what it gave back. The earlier I showed something, the earlier someone pointed out the flaw I couldn’t see, or the simpler way I’d missed. My teammates knew where things stood without having to ask, and my mentors could help with the actual problem instead of the version I’d tidied up for them.

Working that way made the work better. So I decided to keep doing it, beyond the Academy walls too.

No more waiting for perfect

Showing progress forces you to ship in small steps. You get feedback while it’s still cheap to change course, not after you’ve spent weeks on the wrong thing.

It also keeps me honest about what I’ve actually done. A progress update is hard to fake.

Accountability without the pressure

When the people around you can see what you’re working on, you show up for it. Not because anyone is checking on you, but because people are genuinely rooting for you, and you don’t want to go quiet on them.

What I’ll share

From here on, I want to share:

• Progress: what I built, what I learned, and what I struggled with
• Decisions: why I chose one approach over another, and what I gave up
• Failures: the features that didn’t work and the experiments that flopped

The vulnerable part

What if my work isn’t good enough? What if my ideas aren’t original? What if I fail where people can see it?

But everyone who’s building is figuring it out as they go. The difference is that some people pretend they’ve got it all worked out, and some are honest about the journey. I’d rather be honest.

This is my documentation

One day I’ll look back at these posts and see how things evolved: the false starts, the pivots, the small wins. If any of it helps someone else along the way, even better.