We're thinking about creation and reputation backward.

When I tell people they should build in public, I get a look of horror. "But it's not ready yet!" they protest. "What if people see my mistakes?"

The standard way to build things is in "stealthmode" - to work in secret until everything is polished and perfect. Only then do you reveal your masterpiece to the world, hoping to bask in acclaim rather than wither under criticism.

This is completely wrong.

Not only is building in public better for the creator - it's better for everyone else, too.

Let me explain why.

The Stealth Mode Tax

Every time you choose to build something in private, you pay an invisible tax, and it comes in several forms:

First, you lose all the potential feedback that could have improved your work. When you build in private, you're operating with a sample size of one – yourself. Your blind spots remain blind spots. Your implicit assumptions go unchallenged. The use cases you didn't think of stay unconsidered.

Second, you miss out on the motivational effects of public accountability. When you build in public, you create subtle pressure to keep making progress—not because anyone is explicitly demanding it, but because humans are social creatures who naturally want to live up to public commitments. This isn't about shame or external validation—it's about harnessing our social instincts in service of our goals.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, you forfeit the compound interest of public learning. When you learn in public, you create artifacts that others can learn from. Your journey becomes a map that makes others' journeys easier, creating positive externalities that compound over time.

An Asymmetric Upside to Transparency

"But what about the downside?"
"Won't people judge me for my mistakes?"

Think about asymmetric returns.

The downside of building in public is limited. Yes, some people might see your mistakes, and some might even criticize them. But here's the key insight: the people who matter don't care about your mistakes; they care about your learning trajectory. Those who would hold your early mistakes against you are the folks whose opinions you should ignore anyway.

The upside is virtually unlimited. Building in public creates opportunities for collaboration. It attracts like-minded people who give a damn about your work. It builds trust through transparency. Most importantly, it establishes a luck surface area – the more people who know what you're working on, the more chances you have for valuable connections and opportunities to emerge.

There's an even deeper dynamic at play here. When you build in public, you're not just creating a product or a piece of writing – you're creating a network. Each piece of work you share is a node in this network, connecting to other nodes through people who engage with it.

This network has powerful emergent properties. Ideas cross-pollinate, feedback loops accelerate, and communities form around shared interests and challenges. The network becomes a living system that generates value in unexpected ways.

The Open Source movement isn't just about free code—it's about the network effects of public buildings. When thousands of developers can see, use, and improve code publicly, the result is far more than any private team could create.

The Psychology of Public Creation

There's something psychologically liberating about building in public. By sharing early and often, you defuse the pressure of perfectionism. You make it clear that what you're sharing is a work in progress, creating space for experimentation and iterative improvement.

When you build in private, deluding yourself about your progress is easy. Building in public creates a reality check – you can't hide from the gap between what you say you're doing and what you're doing.

Building in public allows you to earn attention authentically, not through marketing gimmicks or growth hacks but by creating genuine value and sharing your journey.

This is particularly powerful - because it creates a virtuous cycle. The more you share, the more attention you attract. The more attention you attract, the more opportunities you create. The more opportunities you create, the more you can build and share. Etc.

How to Start Building in Public

Some principles:

1. Start small. You don't need to share everything at once. Pick one project, one piece of work, one platform, or channel, and just start talking about it.
2. Focus on the process, not the outcomes. Share your thinking, problems, and the lessons you've learned the hard way, not just your finished work.
3. Don't try to create a polished persona. Show the real challenges and uncertainties. If you're scared, tell someone. Tell me. Tell us. Take us with you.
4. Create feedback loops. Ask for input in good faith and engage with people who respond to your work.
5. Document everything. Regular documentation creates a valuable archive of your journey and helps others learn from your experience.

The tools for building in public are better than ever. Blogs. Github. Streaming. Social apps. Specifically, decentralized social apps. Newsletters. Forums. Chat rooms. Discord, Matrix, and everything in between. Podcasts. There are hundreds of ways to share what you're building.

Yet many people still default to building in private. They're held back by fear, habit, or misunderstanding the trade-offs.

Stealth mode is a crutch, your ideas aren't fragile, precious flowers, and building in public is a powerful strategy for creating value and accelerating progress.

The future belongs to those who build in public. The only question is: will you be one of them?