From Notebook to Codebase

I had a notebook full of ideas collecting dust. Sketches. Wireframes. Feature lists. All sitting there, waiting for the "perfect moment" to start building.

Spoiler: that moment never comes.

The Problem with Planning

Don't get me wrong, planning has its place. But for solo developers and indie hackers, over-planning is a trap. Every hour spent perfecting your specs is an hour not spent learning what actually works.

The Shift

One afternoon at my local coffee shop, I made a decision: I would build the ugliest, most minimal version of my top idea before I left. No design system. No authentication. No "scalable architecture."

Just something that worked.

Three hours later, I had a working prototype. It was terrible. The CSS was inline. The database was a JSON file. But it worked.

Why First Versions Should Be Garbage

Your first version teaches you things no amount of planning can:

1. What features actually matter - Half of what I planned was unnecessary
2. Where users get confused - Obvious in hindsight, invisible in planning
3. What's technically harder than expected - Every project has surprises
4. Feedback gets real - A rough MVP gives people something to click, break, and react to. Concepts stay abstract.

That is the trap with the notebook. Most ideas sound fine in your head, but other people cannot see the goal yet. A rough MVP changes the conversation. People can mess with it and give you feedback in real time.

The New Rule

Now I follow a simple rule: Ship before you're ready.

The notebook still exists, but it's for capturing ideas, not perfecting them. The real work happens in the code.

Written from Bad Mother Coffee, which reminds me I still need to try their pourover.