Fuck is this shit even about anymore 🥀💔💔

anime_irl

Car wash, yeah

The internet loves a good trend, and "building in public" is one that’s sticky. Everywhere you look, people are tweeting their daily progress, sharing loom videos of half-baked ideas, and documenting every single decision. It feels like everyone is on stage, shouting about their process.

But here’s the thing: after watching this play out for years, I'm starting to wonder if the show has overshadowed the actual construction. Are we really *building* things, or are we just really good at *talking about building*? Because often, it looks like a lot of performance and very little tangible output.

## Quick take

*   "Building in public" often prioritizes performance over genuine creation.
*   The constant need to share can derail deep work and focus.
*   It creates an illusion of progress without necessarily leading to tangible products.
*   Your "audience" probably cares more about results than daily updates.
*   Authentic transparency is valuable; performative transparency is draining.
*   Sometimes, the best way to build is to simply… build, quietly.

## The Performance Trap

There’s a powerful pull to share every step. It promises community, feedback, and maybe even early customers. But for many, it morphs into something else: a performance. You’re no longer just working; you’re working *for an audience*.

This subtle shift changes everything. You start polishing drafts you’d normally scrap. You explain basic decisions just to fill airtime. The focus moves from "how do I solve this problem?" to "how do I present myself solving this problem?" It's a mental tax on top of your actual work, draining energy better spent elsewhere.

### Why we get sucked in

1.  **Validation:** Instant feedback loops can feel good, like a digital pat on the back.
2.  **Visibility:** Hoping to catch the eye of investors, partners, or future users.
3.  **Accountability (perceived):** Thinking public commitments force you to follow through.
4.  **Community:** The desire to connect with like-minded individuals.

All valid desires, but the "how" matters. If the *how* involves constant, uncritical sharing, the downsides often outweigh the upsides. You spend more time crafting the narrative of your journey than actually taking meaningful steps on that journey. The "building" becomes secondary to the "public."

## What Does "Building" Actually Mean Anymore?

When I hear "build in public," I picture someone literally assembling something piece by piece, inviting people to watch. What I often see is someone talking about *planning* to assemble something, then talking about *finding the pieces*, then talking about *organizing the pieces*, and then… silence, or a pivot to a new "build in public" project.

Real building involves:

*   Deep, uninterrupted focus.
*   Messy, ugly first drafts.
*   Failed experiments nobody ever sees.
*   Long stretches of silent iteration.

These aren't glamorous. They don't make for good social media threads. So what gets shared? The easy stuff. The "I just created a landing page!" or "Look at my new brand colors!" These are components, sure, but not the core *creation*.

## My Setup / Context

I’ve been involved in various "creator economy" adjacent spaces for years, both personally and professionally. I’ve launched tiny projects, worked on bigger initiatives, and watched countless others do the same. I've fallen into the trap myself, believing that consistent public updates would somehow accelerate things.

My experience comes from trying to launch a small software tool, writing a short ebook, and even just trying to learn a new skill like coding. In each case, the urge to "show my work" often coincided with procrastination on the actual work. I’d spend an hour formatting a tweet about my progress instead of spending that hour *making* progress. It was a subtle, insidious form of self-sabotage, masquerading as productivity.

I learned that for me, the crucial stages of deep work and problem-solving required quiet. They required obscurity. When the audience was implied, my brain was split: half on the problem, half on how I'd explain the problem-solving process later. It rarely led to better solutions.

## Who Is This For (and Not For)?

"Building in public" isn't inherently bad. It just has specific use cases where it genuinely shines.

| Good Fit For                               | Less Ideal For                                      |
| :----------------------------------------- | :-------------------------------------------------- |
| Open-source projects (community contribution) | Early-stage product development (rapid iteration)   |
| Learning a *specific* skill (e.g., coding challenge) | Deep creative work (writing a novel, composing music) |
| Transparent company culture (internal processes) | Developing proprietary IP (competitive advantage)    |
| Post-mortem analysis / sharing lessons learned | Initial problem discovery / user research           |

If your core goal is genuinely collaborative, or if the "product" *is* the process (e.g., documenting a complex scientific experiment), then by all means. But for most solopreneurs and small teams trying to bring something new into the world, it's often a distraction.

## What I’d Recommend Instead

Instead of broadcasting every twitch, consider a more strategic, results-oriented approach. Focus on the actual building, then share the *outcomes* and *insights*.

### Build in Silence, Share with Purpose

1.  **Prioritize Deep Work:** Schedule uninterrupted blocks of time where you are simply *creating*. Turn off notifications. Close social media. Don't even *think* about how you'll explain it later. Just do the work.
2.  **Define Milestones:** Instead of daily updates, set clear, internal milestones. A launched feature, a completed chapter, a user-tested prototype. These are actual points of progress.
3.  **Share the "What," Not the "How":** Once you hit a milestone, then you can share. "We launched X!" "Chapter 3 is done!" "Here's what we learned from our first 10 users."
4.  **Offer Post-Mortems, Not Live Streams:** After shipping, reflect. What went well? What went wrong? What would you do differently? *This* kind of sharing is incredibly valuable and honest. It's built on actual experience, not speculation or ongoing performance.
5.  **Curated Transparency:** If you *do* want to build a community, share behind-the-scenes glimpses strategically. A weekly summary, a monthly update, or a specific "lessons learned" thread. Make it additive, not performative.

It’s about understanding the difference between genuine transparency and incessant chatter. One builds trust and provides value; the other often creates noise and slows you down. Your job isn't to entertain with your process; it's to deliver a valuable product or idea. Focus on that, and the rest will follow.

Everyone Is “Building in Public” and Nobody Is Building Anything

Alright, let's cut the crap and talk about privacy. Or the ghost of it, anyway. You clicked on this, so you're either worried, already checked out, or just morbidly curious. Good. Let's get into it.

---

### Privacy: We Already Gave It Up, Didn't We? (Or Do We Still Need It?)

Hey there. Let's be real for a second. That word, "privacy." It feels… quaint, right? Like a rotary phone or a landline. Something from a bygone era, before every single facet of our lives became a data point for some algorithm in a server farm in Ohio.

Most days, I feel like we already held the funeral for privacy. We mourned for about five minutes, then signed up for another 'free' app that tracks our every move because, hey, **convenience, baby!**

---

### The Grand Surrender: How We Handed Over the Keys

Let's just look at the evidence. The receipts, if you will.

*   **Social Media:** We voluntarily broadcast our lives. Our breakfasts, our kids' first steps, our political rants, our relationship statuses, even our *moods*. We give Facebook, Instagram, TikTok (and a dozen others) a constant, real-time feed of who we are, what we like, and who we're connected to. And we do it happily, for the likes.
*   **Smart Devices:** "Alexa, play my favorite song." "Hey Google, what's the weather?" We've invited always-listening microphones into our living rooms, bedrooms, and even bathrooms. Because it's cool. And sometimes, genuinely helpful. But make no mistake, it's listening. Always.
*   **The "Free" Stuff:** Every app you download for free, every website that asks you to accept cookies, every service that only requires an email login (and then asks for your location, contacts, and camera access). **You are the product.** Your data is the currency. We signed that contract years ago, probably without reading the fine print.
*   **Data Breaches? Yawn.** Remember when a massive data breach would be front-page news for weeks? Now? It's Tuesday. Another 50 million accounts exposed. We just sigh, change the password we'll forget by next week, and move on. We're numb.

So yeah, from that perspective, we gave up. We traded the messy, analogue, private existence for a slick, interconnected, hyper-personalized digital one. And for the most part, we don't regret it. We like the recommendations, the targeted ads that *sometimes* hit the mark, the ease of logging in with one click.

---

### But Wait, Do We Still Need This Ghost Called Privacy?

Okay, so we're deep into the digital age. Most of us aren't going off-grid. But here's the kicker: **Just because we've given a lot away, doesn't mean it's worthless, or that we don't still need some of it.**

*   **It's Not Just About Hiding "Bad" Things:** This is the biggest load of bullshit. "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." Oh, really? Tell that to someone who gets denied a job because an algorithm flagged their social media for "potential risk factors" based on some vague correlation. Tell that to someone who gets their insurance premium hiked because their smart health tracker showed an irregular sleep pattern. It's not about hiding illicit activities; it's about **autonomy and preventing manipulation.**
*   **The Power Imbalance is Real:** The more data these companies (and governments) have on you, the more power they have. Power to influence your decisions, your purchases, your vote. Power to profile you, label you, and potentially discriminate against you, all based on data you didn't even know they had or collected.
*   **The "Chilling Effect":** When you know everything you say or do online is being logged, analyzed, and stored forever, you self-censor. You think twice before expressing a truly unpopular opinion. You conform. And that, my friends, is how vibrant public discourse dies.
*   **Security (Actual Security):** If all your data is out there, your identity is easier to steal. Your accounts are easier to compromise. Your digital life is a giant open book for anyone with enough skill (or just plain luck) to exploit.

---

### So, What Now? Are We Screwed, Or Is There a Fight Left?

Look, no one's suggesting we go back to carrier pigeons. That's not happening. But we also shouldn't just shrug and accept that our digital lives are essentially public property.

1.  **Be Aware:** The first step is to simply *know* what you're giving away. Read the permissions. Understand the "free" cost. Ask yourself if that convenience is *really* worth the data trade.
2.  **Use the Tools:** VPNs, privacy-focused browsers (Brave, Firefox Focus), ad blockers (uBlock Origin), strong, unique passwords (use a manager!). These aren't perfect, but they're a hell of a lot better than doing nothing.
3.  **Demand Better:** From companies. From governments. Support legislation that protects data. Vote with your wallet. Choose products and services from companies that actually *try* to respect your privacy, even if they're a bit more expensive.
4.  **Think Before You Share:** This is the simplest one. Do you *really* need to broadcast that? What's the benefit versus the potential downside?

---

### The Bottom Line

Did we give up privacy? Yeah, a lot of it. We traded it for convenience, connection, and those sweet, sweet algorithm-driven dopamine hits. But do we still need it? Absolutely. It's the difference between being a free individual and being a data point in someone else's spreadsheet.

The fight for privacy isn't about hiding secrets; it's about maintaining control over our own lives, our identities, and our future. It's about not letting the algorithms decide who we are and what we're allowed to be.

So, what's it gonna be? Are we just going to let it all go, or are we going to at least try to reclaim some ground? Your move.

Do We Still Need Privacy, or Did We Give Up Already?

Alright, let's get into why everyone's walking around with a low-grade hum of rage in 2025. It's not just you. It's not just the news. It's far more insidious.

---

### Why You're So Damn Angry in 2025: Social Media's Hidden Loops

Let's be honest. Everyone's a bit on edge. Or a lot on edge. You feel it. I feel it. In 2025, it feels like the baseline emotion for a significant chunk of the population is 'pissed off.'

And no, it's not just the usual suspects like politics, inflation, or the ever-present threat of AI stealing your job. Those are fuel, sure. But the engine driving this collective anger? It's something far more insidious, woven into the fabric of your daily digital life: **social media's hidden feedback loops.**

It's not about what you *see*. It's about what the platforms *learn* from your reaction to it. And what they learn is that anger is profitable.

#### The Algorithmic Amplifier

The moment you click that angry emoji, share that outrage bait, or spend an extra second doomscrolling a controversial thread? The algorithm logs it. It learns. It thinks, "Ah, they like this. More of this, please."

It's not trying to make you *happy*. It's trying to keep you *engaged*. And nothing engages like righteous indignation, fear, or tribal fury. So, it feeds you more. And you react more. And it feeds you even more. It’s a self-perpetuating cycle designed to keep your blood boiling.

#### The Outrage Economy

Anger gets clicks. Anger gets shares. Anger gets comments. Engagement metrics are king. Platforms aren't trying to foster reasoned debate; they're trying to optimize for attention. And bland, nuanced content simply doesn't compete with the dopamine hit of a clear-cut villain and a righteous cause.

So, the most extreme, most inflammatory, most polarizing content rises to the top. It's incentivized. It's rewarded. Creators, whether they're genuine or just chasing clicks, learn this lesson fast. They give the people what the algorithm wants: more things to be angry about.

#### The Echo Chamber on Steroids

It’s not just that you see what you already agree with. That's old news. In 2025, the algorithms are sophisticated enough to actively *push* content designed to make your "side" feel morally superior and the "other side" feel utterly contemptible. It hardens positions. It makes compromise a dirty word.

You're not just in an echo chamber; you're in a digital coliseum where your side is perpetually cheering, and the other side is being digitally fed to lions. It feels good for a second, then leaves you more entrenched and more hostile to anyone outside your immediate digital tribe.

#### The Performance Trap

We're all performing, whether we realize it or not. We see others getting validation (likes, shares, agreement) for their outrage, so we try to one-up them. Louder, angrier, more righteous. It's a race to the bottom of empathy, rewarded with fleeting digital attention.

You don't just *feel* angry; you *perform* anger. And the more you perform it, the more your brain gets wired to it. It becomes a habit, a default setting.

#### So, What Does This Actually *Do* To Us?

It primes us. Constantly. We walk around with a low-grade hum of irritation, just waiting for the next trigger. We lose the ability to differentiate between genuine injustice and manufactured outrage.

It makes real connection harder. Trust erodes. The world feels more hostile because, in our digital reflection, it *is* more hostile. Our tolerance for differing opinions shrinks. Our capacity for empathy with "the other" shrivels.

#### The Only Way Out (For You)

So, what's the play? Delete everything? Not realistic for most.

Awareness is step one. Recognize the loops. See the manipulation for what it is. Question the source. Question your own knee-jerk reactions.

Don't feed the beast. Starve the algorithms of your outrage clicks. Seek out nuance, even if it feels less satisfying. Actively look for dissenting opinions, not to argue, but to understand. Spend more time looking up from your screen.

In 2025, being angry isn't just a mood. It's a meticulously engineered state. Don't let them have it.

Why People Are More Angry in 2025 — Social Media’s Hidden Feedback Loops

BlackBerry that can eat you😈

Hereditary (2018) painting by me. Acrylic on paper.

Imps from the Left Emanation by me (mixed media)

https://v.redd.it/9d75mri152lg1/CMAF_360.mp4

Unstuck it

https://v.redd.it/e8rkdt9go6lg1/CMAF_720.mp4

Construction Workers Dream come true.

https://v.redd.it/pzvk38l5p7lg1/CMAF_720.mp4

We are not that type of restaurant😇

Serial killer Carroll Cole, 47, prepares to light a cigarette as he talks with a reporter three days before his execution (Nevada State Prison, 1985) .

Patrick Chappatte editorial cartoon on the growing surveillance state, 2020

"No German customers wanted here until Hitler returns Czechoslovakia!" - a poster placed in the window of a Somerville restaurant by its Czech owner. USA, March 18, 1939.

School was canceled in several Mexican states and local and foreign governments alike warned their citizens to stay inside following the army’s killing, and the violence it spurred.

https://apnews.com/article/mexico-jalisco-cartel-mencho-sheinbaum-trump-226e50edc33f981d5d6509acc7021ae5

25 Mexican National Guard troops left dead during an operation that killed cartel leader ‘El Mencho’

Following increased surveillance and patrols of routes used by transnational drug-trafficking networks, Mexican authorities have seized approximately 10 tons of cocaine in the past week alone.

https://www.wired.com/story/narco-submarine-carrying-4-tons-of-cocaine-captured-by-mexicos-navy/

‘Narco-Submarine’ Carrying 4 Tons of Cocaine Captured by Mexico’s Navy

A referendum on resuming membership talks had been expected in 2027, but could come as early as this August.

https://www.politico.eu/article/iceland-fast-track-vote-eu-membership/

Iceland looks to fast-track vote on joining EU

Ukraine's president sat down with the BBC's Jeremy Bowen in Kyiv days before the four-year anniversary of the war.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgj9p15y87o

BBC News - Zelensky tells BBC Putin has started WW3 and must be stopped

The notorious Jalisco New Generation Cartel reportedly began a ruthless attack on Puerto Vallarta, Mexico over the weekend following the killing of the crime organization's leader.

https://www.tmz.com/2026/02/22/puerto-vallarta-mexico-under-siege-army-kills-major-cartel-leader/

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico Under Siege After Army Kills Major Cartel Leader

https://www.wbal.com/leader-of-mexicos-jalisco-cartel-nemesio-ruben-oseguera-cervantes-el-mencho-killed-by-mexican-military-official

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Everyone Is “Building in Public” and Nobody Is Building Anything

NEWS >

25 Mexican National Guard troops left dead during an operation that killed cartel leader ‘El Mencho’

‘Narco-Submarine’ Carrying 4 Tons of Cocaine Captured by Mexico’s Navy

Iceland looks to fast-track vote on joining EU

BBC News - Zelensky tells BBC Putin has started WW3 and must be stopped

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico Under Siege After Army Kills Major Cartel Leader

Leader of Mexicos Jalisco Cartel Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes Alias "El Mencho" has been killed by the Mexican Army

BLOG >

Everyone Is “Building in Public” and Nobody Is Building Anything

Do We Still Need Privacy, or Did We Give Up Already?

Why People Are More Angry in 2025 — Social Media’s Hidden Feedback Loops

HISTORY >

Serial killer Carroll Cole, 47, prepares to light a cigarette as he talks with a reporter three days before his execution (Nevada State Prison, 1985) .

Patrick Chappatte editorial cartoon on the growing surveillance state, 2020

"No German customers wanted here until Hitler returns Czechoslovakia!" - a poster placed in the window of a Somerville restaurant by its Czech owner. USA, March 18, 1939.

WALLPAPERS >

But the DOW, themillerest, digital painting, 2026

Aurora Borealis, Canada

Andrew Lattimore, Antje at white rock, 2021

FUNNY >

Unstuck it

Construction Workers Dream come true.

We are not that type of restaurant😇

ANIME >

Fuck is this shit even about anymore 🥀💔💔

anime_irl

Car wash, yeah

CREEP >

BlackBerry that can eat you😈

Hereditary (2018) painting by me. Acrylic on paper.

Imps from the Left Emanation by me (mixed media)