Balancing a full-time job, Italian classes, and Rails studies has been a real juggle for me lately. But even with all that on my plate, I've found time to dive into some great reads and listen to insightful podcasts.

I get it, I should be building more and reading less. But the stuff I'm reading is really useful, I promise. It's giving me the tools and ideas I need for my future projects. So, let me fill you in on the content that's been keeping me inspired lately. 🤓

People I'm following

At the moment, I'm closely following four key figures in the indie hacker community. Ranked by how relevant their insights are to my current stage, they are:

• Arvid Kahl - @arvidkahl

• Pieter Levels - @levelsio

• Danny Postma - @dannypostmaa

• Tony Dinh - @tdinh_me

They show the products they are building in public and share some nuggets of wisdom quite often.

Podcasts I'm listening to

I've been tuning into interviews featuring the experts I mentioned earlier, and I've come across some truly standout conversations. Here are some of the most impactful ones:

Books about building

I'm currently immersed in a couple of compelling books, each penned by one of these remarkable indie hackers:

• The Indie Maker Handbook, by Pieter Levels

• Zero to Sold, by Arvid Kahl

Lessons learned so far

I'm just at the starting line of this journey, but I've already picked up some valuable lessons:

1. Time Management: I overestimated the free time I'd have for my side project. Clearly, I need to rejig my schedule to allocate more focused hours for project development.

2. Idea Validation: Before diving into building, it's crucial to validate the idea. Stay tuned for upcoming blog posts where I'll delve into this further.

3. Building a Superior Product: The best products don't just replicate existing services; they elevate them by providing a better user experience and/or extra features on top of one (ideally many) other services. Take Postman, for example. It not only simplifies API connections but also offers added features like parsing, saving, and searching past requests.

These early insights are shaping my approach, and I'm excited to share more as I progress.

Closing Thoughts

Let’s keep doing this! 🚀