Making in Private
Fosters deeper thinking
Over the last 3-5 years, there has been a trend—build in public. The concept is based on the idea of rapid iteration, constant feedback, and public support. By building in public, you can find product-market fit faster and are less likely to give up. While the idea can be powerful, people have taken it too far. The accountability and support part is nice, but does everything need to be shared?
This year, for me, has been the anti-productivity year. It has been slowing down, doing less, and thinking deeper. You might have noticed from previous editions—Embracing Friction, Consuming Actively vs Passively, and many others. This edition is not a year-in-review or a look back through 2024. Rather, I pose a challenge to you in 2025—less building in public and more making in private.
What is Making in Private
Your goals can be achieved without telling the internet about them.
While building in public is all about products, side projects, and hustle—making in private is all about slowing down and creating artifacts for you first. What are these artifacts? Anything and everything you make for work and personal life. The nice thing is that these artifacts can be raw and more honest because they are just for you.
When you come up with that next product idea, want to journal on social media, or even take meeting notes, do it privately first. This might seem like you won't get external support or the validation you think you are craving, but it fosters a relationship with someone you can depend on—yourself. Making in private also forces you to come up with systems to stay on track and be more truthful. I know that showing your highlight reel of your day on Threads seems exciting, but writing a few pages in a journal is much more useful. Introspection trumps image crafting.
Yes, you can and should share things with small and large circles of people, but first make in private, so you can go deep and be honest. Yes, accountability is nice, but let's be honest—your goals can be achieved without telling the internet about them.
Shared Systems
Don't treat every problem like a research study; you can be your only opinion.
You might be asking—what about all the shared documents I work in? Yes, we all work in connected document tools. These tools could be Google Docs, Figma, Notion, or GitHub. If you work with a team, you are likely only doing a facet of the work, contributing to the larger picture. But isn't it stressful to see that avatar of a collaborator pop up in the top of your document?
This idea originally came to me when reading How to Think for Yourself, from Tobias Van Schneider. Most of the tools we use today foster collaboration over solitude. In reality, we are doing the deep, thoughtful work by ourselves, so why not foster systems around this?
Rather than taking notes or designing a flow in the same file, have your own version of the work. This will be a place where the floating cursors and interpreted notes will not interrupt your thinking. You can be messy and think your way, rather than others influencing you. We have all been taught that bias is bad and that we need a wider set of views to solve a problem, but don't treat every problem like a research study; you can be your only opinion.
Where to start
I have a simple solution, one that most do not consider anymore—go analog, or at least analog-style. When you take notes in your next meeting, handwrite them. When you need to wireframe the next iteration of a product, sketch it. When you want to vent to the world, write in your journal. Don't overcomplicate it. You can substitute handwriting and sketching with your favorite typing or whiteboarding tool, just focus on private-first.
While building in public is powerful and can be useful for businesses, not everything needs to be treated like a SaaS product. Our lives are on broadcast to the world—by others and our own doing. Not everything benefits from this. Rather than building your life in public, foster it in private.