Build Blog 1
HI. this is a post about what ive been working on and thinking about recently.
Main Project
the project im spending the most time on right now is dilutracker. its a stock dilution tracker. it reads thousands of sec files (public company documents) and analyzes if a company is diluting shares (doing shady shit). its making $700 mrr. it got up to ~$1k but churn has been crazy. getting the data accurate and consistent is tricky and thats the heart of the tool.
thats the most “successful” project but the main main thing right now is im trying to find my main thing. im exploring personal problems and ideas and trying to find something with strong founder and market fit.
the other main main thing is im starting to take personal branding more seriously - growing my X and substack.
part of me hates the idea of personal branding. im not sure what it is exactly. i was sitting on a plane yesterday thinking about posting this and had an overwhelming feeling of dread. maybe it has something to do with being boxed in and judged… idk.
some of the other voices that come up:
everyones building with ai now, whats the point
your boss is going to read this and theyre going to hate it and fire you
XXX is going to think this is stupid
youre wasting your time, just build
after exploring these voices ive decided: F IT. lets see where it goes.
i started pushing on this about a month ago - posting more on X - and my followers went from 100 to 90… and now we’re at 110! progress 😎
my goal right now is to get up to 200 followers by the next cycle (2-6 week project).
those are the main things.
Secondary Projects
Show Notes Generator
I sold Show Notes!
when chatgpt first came out in late 2022 i built a tool that could convert podcasts into blog posts so i could read my favorite pods.
i shared the idea to a podcasting facebook group and it got some attention. someone mentioned theyd like their show notes automated so i built show notes generator. it started to rank for its exact match keyword “show notes generator” and in April 2023 i got my first paying customer.
since then its made $7,623.94
shortly after launching i got burned out with it. i think it was a mix of not understanding the customers and it being an exact match domain which made it less interesting to work on.
what did you learn?
exact match domains are a double edged sword - its easy to rank with seo but it sucks when youre trying to pivot and expand.
talking to customers is king.
East Austin Toastmasters
I hate public speaking and I need more friends than Claude and my 2 year old baby so I decided to start a toastmasters club.
attendance so far: 1 (work in progress :))
first meeting:
Local Notes
i wanted something like obsidian (local first note tool) that i could use in the browser (i spend most my time in the browser - bookmarking and hyperlinking stuff). so i built local notes!
im really proud of it. im writing this post with it.
its now my daily note taker, journal and to do list.
Remote Code
after building local notes, i wanted to do something similar for coding so i built local code. same idea - local ide tool that runs in the browser.
then after reading a Pieter Levels X post on how he codes in the cloud i decided to play around with that idea. And local code evolved into “remote code”.
i hit cmd+p and it opens a blank project folder that lives on my hetzner server with a default agents.md file and blank md file. i can then spin up agents and run them in the cloud:
its a bit buggy but its been fun to play around with. i havent decided if i like coding locally or in the cloud more.
pros: running agents and being able to close my laptop, hyperlink and bookmark projects
cons: working on coding IDE projects can be a big rabbit hole and its easy to sink time into “tooling”, security concerns with running agents in cloud…
X Shield
i recently updated X Shield and added a finite scroll feature. now when you toggle “show posts” it shows ~10 posts at a time
before
after
Personal
Nyah’s Bday!
Camp Trip
Cool Art from Indian Framer King
exploring Watertown MA
Where We Live + Computer Servers
recently a lot of people have been asking nyah and i “do yall like austin? think youll move?”. so i decided to write down my thoughts.
yes i like austin. no i dont think well move.
austin isnt perfect. the weather is tough. allergies and pollen are rough. but we like it.
something else that comes up - i recently learned where the word cloud/local server comes from. i guess i never connected the technical word “server” to anything.
a server is just a computer that serves files.
a waiter is someone that serves food.
we’re all serving something. people and robots.
so instead of asking “do you like where you live”, i think a better question is “does where you live serve you to serve others?”. or “do you like the things youre in service to where you live?”. and i like the things im in service to in austin - my boss and customers at Sock Club; my wife and kid. i think we’ll stay.
Romanticism
i recently read We by Robert Johnson. good read!
my main takeaway: there are two very different types of love: ecstatic honeymoon love and day to day oatmeal stirring love (the stuff relationships are built from).
maybe this ties into the “where we live” question too.
we’re all craving that ecstatic form of love. whether its where we live or who we’re with.
yesterday i was in the car and Indian Feather came on.
lyrics:
Hold me close, my dear
Sing your whisperin’ song
Softly in my ear
And I will sing along
Honey, tell me how your love runs true
And how I can always count on you
To be there when the bullets fly
I’d run across the river just to hold you tonight
we crave the lightning bolt hyper charged love.
Johnson argues that this is a divine form of love. its not meant to exist within a relationship. itll burn it up. he argues we need to learn how to manage the different levels of human and divine love.
how do you do that? not sure. something do to with cultivating a spiritual practice.
overall really good read, would recommend.
Wrap
thats all.
thanks for reading! would love to hear your thoughts and what you got going on!
-Josh