The temporarily embarrassed indie hacker
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The temporarily embarrassed indie hacker
Pooria Rashidi<br>Mar 22, 2024
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7 years ago, I was on a sleeper train to Chiang Mai, Thailand.
People had questions.<br>"Hey Pooria, I saw your pictures on insta. Where are you? Did you quit your job? What are you doing?"<br>I liked the attention. Look at me and my adventurous life.<br>"Yeah I'm traveling a bunch! And I'm still working a bit. But I'm really excited about this personal project..."<br>As the years went on, that became my mantra.<br>"Pooria, what are you doing?"<br>"Travel, work, personal project."<br>"What's next, Pooria?"<br>"Travel, work, personal project."<br>No matter what, I always kept a spot in my heart for the personal project.<br>Because one day, it would go like this:<br>"Hey Pooria, what are you up to?"<br>"I'm traveling and working a bit"<br>"Oh like at your job?"<br>"No, on my business biiiiitch ! 🫳🎤💥"<br>Yes, one day my personal project would transform into my business, and it would be great.<br>I'd love to work on it. People would love to pay for it.<br>And I'd be fuck-you-free, forever.<br>Except, that never happened.<br>7 years later, I'm still replying, "Travel, work, personal project."<br>Only now, I'm barely fooling myself.<br>You've heard of temporarily embarrassed millionaires?<br>I am the temporarily embarrassed indie hacker.<br>Screw you guys, I'm going to Asia
It started with a surprise lay off.<br>Everyone was shocked. I realized I could never count on a job for my financial security.<br>Around that time I saw an article about Pieter Levels. Some guy my age, barefoot in Bali. He was making cool websites on his own terms, making bank, and even had a fan following!<br>"I can do that! I can build websites. I'm gonna have a life of adventure, freedom, and 4 hour work weeks. I don't need a job!"<br>So I sold my stuff, packed my Macbook and my black Merino wool shirts and my black Merino wool underwear into my #onebag, and hit the road.
Hardly working
During those 7 years, I had unforgettable adventures, transformative relationships, personal growth, and career advancement beyond what I ever expected. I'm so glad I did it.<br>Yet I achieved none of my indie-hacker dreams.<br>It wasn't for lack of time. I had HEAPS of time.<br>It wasn't for lack of wanting either.<br>I was constantly getting struck by inspiration. No matter what else was happening in my life, I had a single thought always on repeat: "How can I make a project for this?"<br>Sometimes all the scattered thoughts and inspiration would coalesce into a plan. With an explosion of excitement I'd start my newest passion project.<br>But 80% of those projects didn't even get launched. My motivation ran out, and I dropped them.<br>When I managed to launch a project, it rarely made money.<br>As for the 2 projects that made a little money... both fizzled out.<br>So why didn't I make it?
I have a few theories, and I'm not going to sugar coat it.<br>Lack of effort: Indie hacking takes tons of hard work, and I was more interested in exploring new countries, chilling with friends, and meeting girls.
Impractical projects: The ideas I was attracted to were often too complicated or poorly scoped for me to build
Unsellable projects: The ideas were also often things that people wouldn't be likely to pay for
Isolation: I built my projects in silence and launched them into the void. No one knew and no one cared
Addiction: I was stuck in addictive spirals, making it impossible to stay consistent with anything
Fear: I was scared of failure and wanted to protect my ego, so I avoided launching stuff
Fake productivity: wasted time customizing vim, trying new keyboard layouts, etc
Mindset: Maybe my expectations and mental models were fundamentally wrong
Lack of discipline: I relied mostly on inspiration and motivation, which are too fleeting to substitute for discipline
Conflicts of interest: My desire to spend less time on the computer conflicted with my desire to build more side projects
Other hobbies: I eagerly spent a ton of my free time on other things like languages, dance, photography, etc, rather than building stuff
It seems like in order to win at this indie hacker game, I needed to be making consistent attempts, taking failure on the chin, and applying the lessons learned.<br>In hindsight, my attempts were sporadic. Failures knocked me reeling into a pit of self-doubt and "self-medication" by addiction. And my most productive times were spent building projects that just weren't technically or economically viable.<br>Am I just not cut out for this?
We've been taught that we can do anything if we try hard enough.<br>And I do believe that, and I think that's a great belief to hold.<br>But we also know that everyone is better at some things, worse at other things.<br>(Of course you can train and improve, but there's limits)<br>So what if I'm naturally lacking the traits and abilities that lead to success as an indie-hacker?<br>The scoreboard sure seems to say so.<br>All my indie hacker dreaming and scheming resulted in...