iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Hustling and building something from scratch develops skills that are always valuable. Even if the venture wasn't successful, the experience and skills you gain can be a big plus when applying for jobs: independence, persistence, strategic thinking, risk management, sales and marketing skills etc.

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Depreciation is a real cost. I only really understood this recently, while trying to sell my car.

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

They could then be selectively cultivated among the wealthiest people who can afford it. That kind of future looks frightening.

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Talent, intelligence, and temperament are innate traits that nature gives people across all social classes, regardless of their background. That could change if genetic engineering advances to the point where these traits can be deliberately enhanced. [...]

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Switzerland brings together beautiful cities, crystal-clear lakes, and breathtaking mountains in a remarkably small area. It’s the perfect destination for both hiking in nature and exploring the cities!

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Agents are shifting people from being developers to becoming product managers.

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

In the age of AI agents, product management skills are more relevant than ever: - What is the core value of the product? - What are its key features? - Who is the product built for? - What is the product interface? - How does the product make money? [...]

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

The night sky is too beautiful, and life is too short to ignore it.

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I wonder how agents affect this part. My agents implement my ideas and make me more productive, but I can’t really say that they make me more creative. Have agents had any impact on your creativity?

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

2. Creativity to come up with ideas for meaningful contributions. I’ve often come across awesome open-source projects but contributed nothing because I simply couldn’t think of how I could make them better. [...]

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

1. Coding skills to write code. Agents lower this barrier to some extent. Some meaningful contributions can now be made using natural language, while others still arguably require human oversight and coding expertise. [...]

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

There are at least two things needed to contribute to open-source software: [...] #buildinpublic

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I believe all smart people live by this rule. At the same time, I feel it can lead to a kind of social ignorance. But hey, most ppl simply prefer to hold on to their emotions, even if it means ignoring certain situations or people. In the end, quality of life depends on the quality of our emotions.

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Let’s be more specific and talk about emotionally withdrawing from irritating situations. Avoid emotional engagement in any situation you already know will irritate you. The easy way is to avoid the situation altogether. The hard way is to stay in the situation but avoid getting emot involved. [...]

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

It’s difficult for me to imagine completely withdrawing from emotions. I think both positive and negative emotions are useful because they motivate us to take action. If we withdrew from everything, wouldn’t we become kind of like zombies? [...]

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

This is so important for well-being! It’s 100% true that anything that triggers my negative emotions becomes MY problem. [...]

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Flippa brokers reaching out via DM with unsolicited offers are really annoying. They’re completely off-target for my niches, just clutter my inbox, and there’s no way to stop them, even with an active Flippa Premium subscription! Flippa, please do something about this.

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

It’s funny how much of the behavior encouraged and normalized by online platforms like social media feels dysfunctional in the offline world. +1 to Jason for a genuinely funny article on the topic. longform.asmartbear.com/social-media...

longform.asmartbear.com

If Kindergarten were like Social Media Marketing

What if we ran kindergarten classes with the same rules as social media marketing?

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

There may be limits to how much humans can be replaced in professions that involve interacting with the outside world and other people.

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Autonomous driving will be a very cool technology until people start abusing it by crashing empty cars into occupied ones. At that point, humans may still have an important role in driving or supervising, even in the age of autonomous vehicles. [...]

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Dear Forbes, you made me realize that endless PR and ad-filled “business content” teaches me very little about business. Ironically, you also helped me realize that truly useful content exists elsewhere, definitely not in Forbes. And no, this isn’t a joke.

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

I've just realized how powerful AI platforms could be for ad targeting, given how much personal information people share with them. The amount of data AI platforms have on their users could rival social media platforms, or even exceed it, since some people discuss deeply private matters with ChatGPT

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

ChatGPT is rolling out ads. It will bring a new way to monetize free users and a new stream of revenue. The ads will be personalized based on existing conversations and basically everything the platform knows about its users. [...]

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Using AI has definitely made me more productive, but it’s also made me switch focus more often and do less deep work. I don’t know many indie builders who aren’t struggling with this. Is it possible to stay productive while building products without constantly shifting focus? #buildinpublic

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

4. Momentum: I’ve already spent X months on this. Why stop now?

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

3. Fear of missing out: What if the opportunity is still there and I’m giving up too soon? [...]

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

2. Perfectionism: Have I explored every possible way to validate it? Tried every channel? [...]

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

1. Doubt: Did I validate it properly? Am I targeting the right customer segment? [...]

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

What makes it so hard to walk away from a project when client validation isn’t bringing results? [...] #buildinpublic

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

It’s underappreciated how lucky indie builders are to be able to create and launch products while keeping a 9-5 job. Not many industries have that luxury. I’m sure quitting my job would create more urgency, but success is far from guaranteed. So for now, I keep my job and build on the side.

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Unless robots take over and civilization completely collapses, the ability to work with people and navigate human systems will remain valuable for life. Which skills are hardest to disrupt?

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

The risk of mastering a hard skill is that technology can eventually make it obsolete. However, soft skills and entrepreneurial skills are less likely to become obsolete. [...] #buildinpublic

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Social media, however, removes that skin in the game. That makes these techniques effective, but also makes social media interactions fundamentally different from real-life personal interactions.

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Generating negative emotions in a personal interaction usually comes back to the person who caused them. [...]

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

This is very different from most personal interactions. People rarely deliberately try to trigger negative emotions when interacting with others, whether acquaintances or strangers. The reason is that they have skin in the game. [...]

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

These techniques are often recommended to increase engagement: take a strong stance, be contrarian, make extreme claims, talk about polarizing topics, and so on. What they have in common is that they trigger strong, often negative emotions, prompting people to engage and leave comments. [...]

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

One aspect of how social media became asocial media: [...]

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

A useful mental heuristic: when something feels too simple, it’s probably wrong. For example: - responding to people with verbal aggression - picking expensive hobbies - skipping sports and exercise

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

I like the parallels between martial arts and entrepreneurship: • You have to stand and fight for yourself. • No one is usually coming to rescue you. • You live with the consequences of your choices. #buildinpublic

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Yesterday I spoke with a potential customer who tested my product against his Claude agent. It wasn’t a favorable comparison. Custom agents can be incredibly powerful because they’re built around one user’s exact needs, while general products trade specificity for scale. #buildinpublic

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

...Of course, that would make my social bubble even smaller. But is that necessarily a bad thing if it improves my emotional well-being?

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

...Lately, I’ve been thinking about using an agent to filter my social media feed. It could filter out posts that trigger certain emotions based on my own criteria. LMs understand meaning, so they could enable much more sophisticated filtering...

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

...but also on my other account where I follow politics and public life. I think the negative effects are mainly triggered by emotional responses to multiple people. For example, I don’t feel bad after reading long-form content from a single author...

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Social media has a huge impact on our brains. Personally, I find that using it too much makes me miserable and gives me this constant anxiety about not making it. I’m probably not the only one. I notice it when following the #buildinpublic community,...

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

It's always funny when companies call employees "Product Owners." In many places, the role is really about maintaining an internal product, without giving the employee any real ownership. The title implies ownership, but the role rarely comes with it.

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

First pair of prescription glasses in my life. Do I fit in with the indie community better now? 🤓

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

... It's not a sure win, but a great launching pad for future ventures. Do you agree?

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

... For example, they might decide to try a physical product or service later in life that is not as easily disrupted or offers other benefits. The principles behind marketing, human psychology, economics, time allocation, capital allocation, and everything else are universal...

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Software is a great way to start a business because it has relatively low capital requirements. People with limited capital can gain real business experience, accumulate capital, and later use it in any other field... #buildinpublic

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Jan Builds Digital @janbuildsdigital.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

This looks like yet another tailwind for GrapheneOS and other independent distributions!

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