Build in public, mostly on purpose

Working in the open isn't a growth hack. It's a forcing function that happens to grow things.

People treat 'build in public' as a marketing tactic — post the journey, farm the engagement, convert the audience. That works, sort of, and it also misses the point.

The real value is the forcing function. When you know you'll show your work, you finish more of it. You explain decisions you'd otherwise leave fuzzy. You get caught earlier when you're wrong, which is a gift even when it stings.

An audience is a side effect of doing the work where people can see it.

The trick is 'mostly on purpose'. Share the process, not the panic. Show the bug and the fix, not the 3am spiral. Public enough to stay honest, edited enough to stay useful.

Do that for a year and two things compound: the work gets better, and a small group of the right people start paying attention. In that order. Never the reverse.