Louis' Learnings 10 - Should You Build In Public?

Reducing Digital Clutter

Jan 18, 2021

🐘 Happy Monday from Tuscaloosa, AL 🐘

Welcome to the tenth Louis’ Learnings email! Thank you so much for being here!

In the spirit of digital minimalism, I kept this week’s newsletter brief.

I share three moderately overlapping mini-essays related to my decision to quit social media. I also share my evolving opinions on building in public. Enjoy!

Best “Atomic” Essays from Last Week

Tools, Toys, and The 2007 Test

The only way to "make more time" is to use your time more effectively. A prime candidate for achieving this is reducing the time spent with your screens, more specifically, your phone.

To do this, I recommend judging all of your apps and use cases for your phone through what I call the “2007 test."

Ask "Is this something I could have performed on the original iPhone?"

Steve Jobs' vision for the iPhone at MacWorld 2007 was a digital Swiss Army knife: a revolutionary user interface that combined audio entertainment, web-browsers, calls/texts, and useful utilities like notes, calculator, and a camera.

The original iPhone was a tool, not a toy.

14 years later, everyone is addicted to their digital multi-tools.

The iPhone was not intended to take over our lives. It wasn't supposed to be consulted at the slightest hint of boredom. It wasn't supposed to be on the dinner table face up. It wasn't supposed to be checked every few minutes. It wasn't supposed to be used 4+ hours of the day.

Go through your apps. Ask "is this a tool or a toy?" Ask "could I have done this in 2007?" Delete apps accordingly. Be ruthless.

There are a few obvious exceptions. The 2007 iPhone did not have a front camera, but I would generally consider FaceTime to be a good use of your device. The first iPhone didn't have a proper GPS, but I would definitely advise navigation if you are lost.

The 2007 test is not perfect, but it's a starting point for critical thinking.

Delete useless apps. Delete distracting apps. Live your life.

No Room for Social Media

Last week, I deleted all of my social media accounts. (except LinkedIn)

My decision came from a three step framework I learned from studying minimalism and intentional living.

Step 1: Identify your most important values

Step 2: Identify the most important activities that support your most important values

Step 3: Prioritize those activities above less important activities. Don't let what matters least take away from what matters most.

With my last semester of college coming up, I went through the exercise to make sure my activities matched my values. Here's my thinking...

Values: my work (learning), relationships (real world), and my health and happiness (fitness, energy levels, and emotions).

Prioritized Activities: studying, exercising, sleeping well, and having an in-person social-life.

With this established, I asked if there was room for social media in the picture. Would it be supportive or detrimental?

Social media is harmful to overall concentration and time management.
It doesn't make me fit or happy. Constant comparison is not helpful.
It doesn't amplify my real world social interactions.

Seems like a simple decision to me.

Find what matters most. Make sure your actions support it.

Should You Build in Public?

A few months ago, I heard the term "build in public" for the first time.

If you are working on cool stuff, talk about it online. Let people try your early versions. Publish what mistakes you are making so others can learn from them proactively. Share glimpses of success to inspire other builders.

There are great benefits to this approach.

Acquire and learn from real users
Potential to "go viral" with the right retweet or share
Increase your odds for serendipitous, positive events to occur

I tried buying into this strategy in 2020 but ran into a big problem: I got too caught up in the documenting. Using Twitter to share what I was building lead to more time on Twitter and less time building.

I started building in public prematurely. My "builder" habits were not nearly developed enough to overcome the addictive draw of Twitter.

On the times that I saw benefits from building in public, like high engagement with a tweet, things only got worse. I started to crave the attention and validation (quick & cheap dopamine). I started to care more about making good tweets than making good work.

So I quit Twitter.

I'm now taking the extra time to learn skills and produce work. I'm betting more of my chips on quality instead of hoping for retweets and hoping for likes.

If building in public is getting in the way of your building, take a step back and remind yourself why you are building in the first place.

Don't let building in public get in the way of building.

Content Updates

LK Podcast #50 with Danny Miranda: Our friend Danny joins us for a reflective and fun episode. Each of us share our three biggest personal lessons from conducting 50 podcast interviews in 2020.

Danny Miranda is the host of The Danny Miranda Podcast, which in only 4 months crossed 20,000 downloads. He has hosted awesome guests like Gary Vaynerchuk, Jack Butcher, and Ed Latimore.

LK Podcast #49 with David Oakley: David Oakley is Alabama's most productive multifamily real estate broker of the last decade, having transacted over 6 billion dollars in deals. In this interview, he shares the wisdom he's acquired from that experience.

Coming Soon!

LK Episode 51, John Sherwin shares his story creating Hydrant
Podcast interview with Geoff Woods, host of The ONE Thing Podcast
Podcast interview with Dickie Bush, creator of the 🚢Ship30for30🚢 challenge

3 Quick Clicks

(1) Leveraging My Time 💰 : Instacart Grocery Delivery

I went to Target to buy college-ruled notebooks. They didn’t have any. In a fit of rage, I resolved to quit in-person shopping. I bought notebooks on Amazon and am getting Aldi delivered today at 11am. Thanks, Instacart 🥕

(2) Currently Reading 📖 : Eisenhower in War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith

I needed a break from self-help books. After reading this enlightening blog post, I settled on Eisenhower. I have really been enjoying following his life trajectory.

(3) Staring at Me From My Bookshelf 🪔 : Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport

I recommend something from Cal almost every week, and for good reason. Cal’s writing is extremely effective at two things. First, he helps readers identify what is most important in their lives. Second, he persuades readers to take action based on what’s most important. I think that is valuable.

Photo of The Week

I went axe-throwing over the weekend. The activity has been on the “someday/maybe” list for over a year, so I’m thankful to my roommate Zak for nudging me to go.

For whatever reason, I felt compelled to test my calisthenics and had a friend take this fun picture.

That’s All For This One!

I’d love to hear from you. If you’ve tried any of the recommendations or found any of my writing especially interesting, your feedback and stories are always encouraged.

Louis' Learnings