Coming Up for Air

So, I haven’t posted in a while.

In the world of “building in public,” there is a lot of pressure to always be moving forward, always optimizing, and always having something profound to say. For a long time, I had none of those things. I’ve been quiet for a few specific reasons:

• Burnout: Not the “I need a long weekend” kind, but the kind where even the smallest task felt like climbing a mountain.

• The Void: I felt like I didn’t have anything worthy to say.

• Survival Mode: I wasn’t actively working on anything. I was just “surviving”, avoiding the feeling of helplessness by consuming content or gaming for hours just to quiet the noise.

I’ve started therapy in January, and while it’s a long and tough road ahead, it has helped me begin to unpick the knot of burnout.

Part of my recovery is exposure therapy. My perfectionism is a loud voice in my head that screams that my work has no worth unless it’s flawless. Writing this post - and the ones that will hopefully follow - is my way of fighting back. I’m sharing my thoughts even when that voice tells me not to.

After years of developing the new version of 10FastFingers (internally called v3), is finally going live in the next two weeks. This has been a massive undertaking and probably a big reason for my burnout. But now I’m excited (and a little nervous) to finally share the insights, the data, and the journey of rebuilding a platform with such a long legacy (more about that soon).

I also have to address the “elephant in the store.” My Sudoku game is finished and live on the Play Store, but it taught me a hard lesson: Building alone isn’t enough. In a niche as competitive as mobile sudoku games, you can have a polished product, but without a heavy marketing engine, you get zero downloads (and I understand why, my game doesn’t stand out at all, though I’m still proud of the result). That’s exactly what happened, 0 downloads. It was a struggle, and it hit my confidence hard, but it’s a data point I’m taking with me into the next chapter.

Lately, I’ve found a new way to work that actually helps with my burnout rather than draining me: Vibe Coding.

I’ve been building game prototypes using LLMs to hold my hand. When my mental capacity is too low to debug complex error messages, the AI helps me bridge the gap. It has completely transformed my workflow:

1. Rapid Iteration: I can build a prototype focused purely on mechanics while keeping visuals vague.

2. Finding the “Fun”: I can tweak values in minutes instead of days.

3. Better Collaboration: Previously, my developer (who is amazing!) had to wait for me to test and provide feedback—a loop that stalled during my deepest burnout. Now, I can hand him a “vertical slice” with defined values, allowing him to build without being blocked by my recovery (more on that soon).

I’m moving toward a “build in public” mindset - doing cool things and talking about them, even if they aren’t perfect. I’ll be diving deeper into each of these topics (the 10FF launch, game design, and more) in upcoming posts.

I’m keeping things open-ended for now to avoid the trap of perfectionist pressure, but I’m glad to be back. I hope you find some value in this journey. If you have questions, want to share your struggle or just want to connect, please leave a comment, I’d love to hear from you!