i've been building software for a couple of years now, mostly in private. projects would live on my local machine, maybe get pushed to a github repo that nobody would ever see. recently i decided to change that.
why
the main reason is accountability. when you tell people what you're working on, you feel a pull to actually finish it. there's something about public commitment that makes you show up.
the second reason is feedback. you can't improve in a vacuum. other developers see things you miss, suggest approaches you haven't considered, and sometimes just validate that you're on the right track.
what i've learned
ship early, ship often. the first version of anything is going to be rough. that's fine. get it out there and iterate.
nobody cares as much as you think. this is liberating. most people are too busy with their own work to judge yours. the ones who do notice are usually supportive.
documentation matters. if you can't explain what you built and why, you probably don't understand it well enough yet.
i'm still early in this experiment but it already feels like the right move.