Building in private is good for you

You don’t have to build everything in public.

In fact, when was the last time you made something only for yourself? A watercolor, a sketch, a painting? An essay? A journal entry? A meal?

When was the last time you did something and didn’t try to mine it for a moral, a LinkedIn lesson, a story to tell someone, a photo for the ‘gram (do people still say that?), etc. etc. Just something that you did for yourself, because you enjoyed it or wanted to try it out.

“Building in public” has benefits, for sure, for you and for others. It’s good to share stuff you make, and it’s good to make stuff that you want to share.

But making stuff just for yourself is valuable too, for yourself and for others.
It allows you test things out with zero stakes before you commit to them, to take big risks, to try out crazy ideas, to see what you like, define your taste or your style — or break out from your “style” — to be honest with yourself, to make something with zero eyes watching you. It can be freeing or fun or crazy or boring. All of that is necessary if you want to create something cool to share with people.

I’ve been sharing a lot of stuff I’ve been making this year, and it’s been fun.
But that’s mostly been possible because I’ve spent years (decades?) making a lot of stuff that was just for me, just because I enjoyed it.