On Building in Public

There is something deeply uncomfortable about showing people work that isn't done yet. We're trained from school onwards to present polished results — the finished essay, the final exam, the completed project. The messy middle is supposed to stay hidden.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately because I've started sharing things earlier. Not finished products, but works in progress. Half-formed ideas. Rough prototypes that barely hold together. And something interesting has happened: the feedback I get at this stage is far more useful than anything I receive after something ships.

The paradox of early sharing

When you share something polished, people tend to react to it as a finished object. They'll tell you it looks nice, or they'll nitpick details that are hard to change. But when you share something rough, people engage with the idea behind it. They suggest directions you hadn't considered. They point out assumptions you didn't know you were making.

This is the paradox: the less finished your work looks, the more honest and generative the feedback you receive.

What I've learned

Building in public isn't really about transparency for its own sake. It's about creating feedback loops that are tight enough to actually change the trajectory of what you're building. A two-week feedback cycle means you might course-correct once or twice a month. A daily feedback cycle means you're navigating in near real-time.

There's also an accountability element. When you tell people what you're working on, you're more likely to follow through. Not because anyone is watching — most people forget what you told them within minutes — but because you've made a small commitment to yourself.

The uncomfortable truth

Most of what we build doesn't matter as much as we think it does. Sharing early helps us figure out which parts actually do matter, and which parts we're just attached to because we spent time on them. That distinction is everything.

The next time you're tempted to wait until something is ready, consider showing it now instead. The worst that can happen is someone shrugs. The best that can happen is someone helps you see something you couldn't see alone.