Shipping slow as an indie parent

Let’s normalise shipping slow, even while we want to ship fast.

Being an indie parent means we could never ship as fast as we expect ourselves to. This gets especially hard when you see other indies shipping their MVP in a weekend.

Let’s be honest: Assuming all things—skills, opportunity, idea, market—being equal, there’s just no way for an indie parent to catch up.

And it’s frustrating sometimes... Sorry strike "sometimes" – I meant oftentimes! 😅

Because to compare is human. I want to acknowledge that inevitable aspect of being a social creature, not just on Twitter but in real life, even while I understand that comparison is the thief of joy. I don’t want to make excuses for myself, but I also don’t want to be unkind to myself either for being imperfect.

Sometimes I wish I can hear more from indie parents struggling to ship, yet shipping anyway.

Maybe it took them 10x longer.
Maybe they had to sacrifice their sanity and sleep more than they would like.
Maybe they never thought they could make it to the finish line.

But they did it, and that to me is more inspiring than hearing from the outliers who can go "monk mode" for months.

As it is, being a parent is one of the hardest jobs in the world already. We don’t need to make ourselves feel worse for not being able to live up to our own expectations of ourselves.

I sooo want to normalise shipping slow to myself, even while I want to ship fast. Let’s affirm, but not make it an excuse.

Here's to all the indie parents out there – staying up after all the chores are done, kids asleep, shipping in drips, almost giving up so many times... 🍻

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