Building In Public: A Year of Documenting Web3
February 2022
For many, the phrase “building in public” has generally resonated with open source development and sharing one’s progress online via GitHub, blogs, or social media. We’ve also seen this phrase used more commonly throughout the web3 industry in the last few last, and most everything built from blockchains to dApps, etc., is available in the open inherently. Having worked in this industry for some time, I decided to take my spin on the meaning of “building in public” with a small self-challenge — report on the industries happening each day in five minutes or less. Blockchain Today ☕️ aka “Blockchain & Crytpo Today” was born.
The challenge initially began on February 17th, 2021, intending to complete one-full month, Monday-Friday every week. The plan was to share activity, headlines, and funding news from around the industry, provide added context & depth to the topics in five minutes or less, and then openly share back with the world through various forms of media. My thinking evolved from selfishly wanting to learn more about everything in this industry that changes by the millisecond to providing an easy on-ramp for others in a short, digestible format with enough surface and depth to support their further curiosity.
Instantly I found that my new daily ritual would not only help myself and others but would provide a whole new perspective and self-discipline than I ever would have expected. As for over the next year, I would go on to give this brief report every day at the same time, Monday through Friday, holidays included, no matter what I was doing or where I was, I made the time to research, plan, and report via live-stream video (& few audio-only due to technical issues) starting with YouTube then expanding to LinkedIn, Clubhouse, Facebook, Twitch, etc. and share quick snippets on Twitter. A few episodes had slightly adjusted times (tested various timezones, formats, etc.), and in 2022 I began testing out a later format; I’m not perfect and enjoy testing — it’s the product side of my brain.
The profound effect this process had on me has only recently been realized as I crossed the milestone of producing this report, not for one month but one full year and still going. For those counting at home, that’s over 250 reports (video & social every day) for the year, an average of 22 pieces per month, with viewers ranging from a small few to over two thousand (most viewed was on November 22nd, 2021). Talk about discipline.
While yes, my knowledge of the industry has increased, I’ve also formed new friendships; discovered a copious amount of communities & projects; drastically evolved my venture thesis; learned several lessons on running distributed teams & building dApps; went through multiple unique hairstyle changes (those WFH haircuts…😬), and found a renewed sense of optimism about the future of innovation. It’s been an insightful and challenging process of building in public, but one I’m grateful that I took the opportunity to accomplish. Thank you to all those that helped along with the journey.
I look to keep daily practice beyond this celebrated milestone, making adjustments along the way from my continued learnings. Looking towards sharing more on the insights mentioned above and more research along with analysis reports soon. Those newly discovering my efforts, you can always find the daily summary on Twitter as “Blockchain Today ☕️.”
