Jason Leow

What if I didn't care about everything that I *should* do, but did what I *want* to do?

What if I ignored the best practices, the top 10 growth hacks I never knew, the mental models that will make you unstoppable, the 10 tools that feels illegal to know?

What if I just did what I needed—WANTED—to do, right here right now?

What if I didn't care about:

- Engaging on social media daily
- Posting/Tweeting every day
- Growing an audience
- Working hard
- Working nights and weekends
- Getting up at 5am to work
- My strict habits and routines
- Thinking about work 24/7
- The thousand and one other good-to-do tasks in a day

What if I just did what's needed, what moves the needle, and be done for the day?

What if I choose to be ***strategically lazy***?

Would I still be able to achieve just as much? Or would I—in the end—achieve more?

I don't know for sure.

But I sure feel like I want to try now. More than ever.

I've worked so hard for so long. Yet the results elude me.

Maybe just trying something new, something refreshing, something fun... something I yearn to do, will help.

Frankly, I up to my throat on what I *should* do... so much that I don't want to care anymore.

Anything different will probably help at this point.

Something.

Anything.

This is like my 3rd (and hopefully final) iteration. 1st version was plain Twitter embed. 2nd was Twitter embed with lazy loading using lozad.js. 3rd is responsive static HTML.

What do you think? Does it look better?

Twitter's widget.js is crazy slow! Stuff I did to speed it up:
- had to add "defer" attribute to the script
- place script at body end
- experimenting with IntersectionObserver API to lazy load script upon scroll point

Sometimes too much of a good thing is bad. Water is vital for a plant, but a flood kills it. Food gives us sustainance but too much we get obese. Thrift is a virtue but too much is hoarding. Twitter is great for me 99% of the time, but on bad days 1% of the time, it's sucks.

What's inspiring yesterday can be demotivating today.

All the MRR wins, ARR updates, million dollar acquisition wins, subscriber milestones. All good, until it isn't.

I guess such tweets just mirror back to me something about my own rate of progress which I've never completely come to accept...

So what do you do to keep your spirits up when everyone else seems to be "crushing it" on your timeline?

A few helpful tips, from the [community](https://twitter.com/jasonleowsg/status/1621509091867914240):

- Focus on enjoying the work.
- Acknowledge that that's not the full story.
- Get tf off Twitter, and go do the boring work.
- Be grateful for the small and beautiful things.
- Start coding. Apply code where it hurts. Aaaah.
- Go take a walk, zoom out and get some distance in.
- Truth is everyone's revenue is down in the recession.
- Don't over-think. Ignorance is bliss. Just keep building.
- Read them with equanimity but don't confuse myself for them.
- Stop comparing and cheer people on, be happy for their success.
- Ask if there's a personal/profit interest in them selling their success.
- Engage with smaller accounts who are working hard alongside you.
- Reflect on the fact that I probably made someone feel that way before.
- See the highs and lows as a never-ending cycle, a natural ebb and flow.
- See that I'm not running in their race, and we're not even in the same sport!
- Ask if I would want their success if I also had their struggles, problems, and values.
- Prioritise on the work that truly moves the needle, not sh\*t like impressions, likes, follower growth.
- Get angry—the right kind of angry—that I'm wasting time and energy in self pity. Constructive rage.
- Be self-centred. Focus on yourself and my goals. Nobody really cares anything other than themselves. Only time when it's better to be self-obsessed.
- To end off: Ultimately, remember that I'm just visiting. Memento mori. A decade later, I wouldn't even recall the emotions I struugled with today. This line I chanced upon on my feeds hit hard: "The water in your body is just visiting. It was a thunderstorm a week ago. It will be the ocean soon enough. Most of your cells come and go like morning dew. We are more weather pattern than stone monument. Sunlight on mist. Summer lightning. Your choices outweigh your substance."

*Any other tips?*

What goes best with a successful product?

Another product.

Because it's tempting to go all in when one thing works well.

But here's a few things that can go wrong:

- Platform risk is real.
- Market conditions unexpectedly change.
- A competitor with boatloads of cash shows up.

Some real life examples I'm witnessing with my own eyes right now:

Never has the platform risk on Twitter been more real. And it's not just those building an audience on Twitter, but even those building apps on Twitter. In the same week, Twitter nerfed organic reach by 50%, and by some accounts, 70% or more. Twitter is pretty much dead, they say. On top of that, a once week notice to all developers building on the Twitter API that it will no longer be free. This was a few weeks after they randomly shut down access to some third party Twitter apps like Tweetbot. Imagine your Twitter app is doing well, and you quit your job, went all in last year to build the business. All of a sudden that's taken away from you. That's how a lot of devs are feeling now. The uncertainty and fear. So confident you were that going all in was the right thing to do, until the proverbial knife came down on the turkey on Thankgiving day. You're the turkey now.

Same with market conditions. At the start of the pandemic, Zoom was the poster child. Everyone needed a video call app and they were at the right place at right time. But within the past 2-3 years, the rest of the tech giants caught up. Cue Google Meet, Microsoft Teams. Now video apps are commodities. With nothing unique to stand out with, and everyone back in office post-pandemic, Zoom's stock is down so far that's it's doing worst than *before* the pandemic. Imagine you went all in and focused on Zoom 3 years ago, as the founder or as an investor. Good luck with that now.

Same with unexpected competitors. Indie bootstrapped AI profile pic apps AvatarAI.me and ProfilePicture.ai first burst onto the scene and got super viral. They were first, but first mover advantage didn't help, because then VC-funded startup Lensa came along with boatloads of cash ($6M), a bigger team, and went on to win the market, doing $1M+ in daily revenue. Sure, the earnings from the indie apps aren't shabby for solo devs. But hard to imagine they have a fighting chance against the stellar growth of the fast second. Now imagine if that AI app was your 100%. It was doing so well, you were so happy with it that you went all in on that one project. And within the span of a few short months, a competitor takes away all that from you. Thankfully @levelsio and @dannypostmaa who built those apps have other products to lean on...

Over and over again, the lesson is clear:

Going all in on your only successful product is dangerous.

Diversify to hedge risks.

With everyone hustlinh and crushing it in my timeline, I feel like I need more influence from folks who are doing a calm business of one. That got me thinking:

What does a calm business of one look like ideally, for me?

- No working late night and weekends
- No hustle porn
- Works around your lifestyle, not you around the work
- Optimizes for a blank calendar
- A survivor, with at least enough earnings in the bank account
- No jumping on hype cycles of new tech
- Self-confident in running my own race
- Realistic with problems, optimistic with potential
- Zero to minimal meetings
- No employees
- Specialist contractors/freelancers at most
- Quality time timeboxed for family
- Work anytime I want
- No need permission to go on vacation
- Not chasing likes, impressions and followers for it's own sake
- Location independence
- Creative autonomy in all my projects
- Nothing that requires 24/7 support
- No 3am server downtime emergencies
- Firing unreasonable customers
- No contractual lock-in to being in business for perpetuity
- Time for health and fitness
- Diversified portfolio of products and services
- Always be experimenting and making small bets
- Optimised for lifestyle

*What else do you think should be what a calm business of one should look like?*

- https://accordionfaqs.carrd.co/#doubleaccordion

Just realised I TRIPLED my revenue for my [Plugins For Carrd](https://plugin.carrd.co) project! OK it sounds like a lot, but just to put it in perspective, it's ~$1k to ~$3k. And it's one-time revenue not recurring. And that's for the whole year, not monthly. Monthly revenue averages out to $91 in 2021 compared to $281 in 2022.

I started it in Dec 20202. By end of my first year 2021, I earned $1099. By end of last year 2022—which is my 2nd year—I earned $3372. Here's the monthly figures:

**2021 (1st year)**
Dec $135
Nov $334
Oct $60
Sep $105
Aug $150
Jul $120
Jun $30
May $30
Apr $105
Mar $30
Feb $0
Jan $0
———————
TOTAL = $1099
Monthly average = $91.60

========================

**2022 (2nd year)**
Dec $515
Nov $607
Oct $250
Sep $200
Aug $230
Jul $265
Jun $285
May $345
Apr $125
Mar $250
Feb $90
Jan $210
———————
TOTAL = $3372
Monthly average = $281

But the 3k and monthly figures don't include my earnings from the Seller and Referral programs. It was too small in the beginning so I didn't think much about it. Only recently did I start noticing that it's getting substantial and started tracking the amount in my monthly wrap-ups. I recently withdrew about ~$2k from it (accumulated over 2 years)! So maybe we're talking about qradrupled revenue? But minimally, a triple. (I know, my accounting sucks)

So all in all, it's a nice and slow growth for sure. No hockey stick trajectory, just quietly trudging along... hopefully like the proverbial turtle who beats the hare.

Eventually.

Sometimes it gets to me seeing how everyone's crushing it in my timeline.

Especially on low morale days when I'm not in the best of mindsets, when every thing is a struggle, and my inner voice is beating myself up all over again.

Those days I feel like giving up.

I know it intellectually that everyone's running their own race, that there's no need for comparison. But when you're immersed in such influence day in day out—especially folks who started way later but are progressing way faster—all it takes is a tiny leak, a small lapse in mindfulness for the influence to get through.

Inspiration can flip to demotivation in a flash.

Then I see [Peter Askew's](https://twitter.com/searchbound/status/1620172518039642113) "tall trees grow slow".

> I build RanchWork.com calmly. Bootstrapped. Solo. I don't "hustle". I don't "crush it". This project revolves around me, not me around it. One thing I do: show up, every, day.
>
> 🌲Tall trees grow slow🌲

What a refreshing point of view. A timely reminder.

Aye. I can live with that.

Tall trees grow to their own light.
Tall trees help other flora and fauna grow.
Tall trees have deep roots that anchors them in.

Calm. Contented. Confident.

He talks more about his [calm approach](https://www.deepsouthventures.com/must-ride-mule-to-from-work-location/):

> I tend to approach online businesses this way. Not intentionally – I just found myself on this path. Find a good domain name; build a product/service; see if it solves a problem & makes people happy; *and only then* attempt to make it profitable. Purpose always comes first. As does contentment. Revenue always comes second. Sure, this approach has bitten me in the ass before, but I don’t care. When it’s worked, the results are wondrous. And this project checked those boxes.
>
> And while RanchWork.com isn’t a flashy VC funded endeavor, or even some high flying 6-figure revenue generator, it’s not that I don’t care. The site doesn’t care. Cause it’s too busy. Working. Quietly... as nice, humble internet businesses.

Working quietly as a nice, humble internet business.

I like that.

I want that.

I will be that.

- added real lifel examples of websites using the plugin (social proof!)
- added a new section to showcase how a double slider works (on enquiry by customer)
- added a new section for walk-through tutorial on how to implement the double slider

This my top 3 most sold plugins. Worth an update with more social proof and provide more value.

Finally the festivities are over. Christmas, New Year, Chinese New Year done. We can finally get back into the momentum of things again.

If there's one thing I really want to do this year—right now—is to **build, build, build**.

I had set [intentions](https://golifelog.com/posts/2023-in-8-forms-of-capital-1672630377703) to power up on marketing by launching a new type of product that I've never launched before. I also wanted to get more practice on being able to sense and act fast on opportunity, and gain more practice as a founder by launching new products through the year.

I had an [open question](https://golifelog.com/posts/open-questions-for-2023-1672709959575) for the year about my products: Will any of my indie products ever get to ramen profitability?

These intentions are but the tip of the iceberg. The real root of why I'm really feeling it now is because for the past 2-3 years, I've built *way* too little. I was getting my marketing game up, learning how to be a content creator, easing into a consistent Twitter presence, so much so that I definitely neglected the hacking part of "indie hacking". In the first place, making things—the very act of creation, and willing things into being—was what made me want to be an indie hacker/solopreneur!

> "I wanna be an indie hacker because I want to do more marketing." said no indie hacker ever.

I've been putting the cart before the horse. Do interesting stuff, *then* tweet said interesting stuff. Not try to tweet interesting stuff out of thin air *just because* you should be "show up every day". The former makes for good stories and storytelling. The latter – more likelihood of manufactured stories that feel forced, designed for the algorithm, for entertainment, for virality, for clicks.

That's the key difference between being a content creator versus indie hacker, after trying both. Indie hackers build a product in public by doing first, then sharing. Content creators share first, because the product they're building is an audience.

Nothing inherently wrong with being content creator, just that I'm realising that my personal ethos is not of a content creator but more indie hacker.

I just want to build build build. And then share cool stories in this digital campfire called Twitter with other builders and hackers. Not to win social status or get more followers but just to make cool things and tell a story!

That's it.

So f\*\*k this content creation flyhweel sh\*t. I getting back to building.

📈 Current MRR: $109 (•$0)
📊 One-off revenue: $816 (↑$72)
💰 Total revenue: $925 (↑$72)
🏦 Total profit: $709 (↓$68) (excl. salary, consulting revenue)
⚖️ Profit margin: 76%

The first month of 2023 has passed.

In the flurry of year-end reviews and new year intentions-setting, I realised I forgot to write my intentions for Jan haha.

January had been a good month. Good because I survived yet again. Scoring a substantial consulting gig laid much financial anxiety to rest. All I need to do is to score another one and I’ll be truly safe for the year (after which thriving can start).

Now that all the major festivities (Christmas, New Year, Chinese New Year) are over, it feels like I can finally get back into the flow again.

Overall, a promising January. Onwards to a prosperous 2023!

There's this recent [Hacker News post](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34548908) about this guy who runs SteamDB, which has 6M unique visitors per month. With that kind of traffic, he can potentially do $1M ad revenue a year. Or more.

But he doesn't run ads. At all. He even stopped taking donations.

Basically, he's running it for FREE.

Reading the comments, many people "respected" that:

"You're passing on $50k-100k per month of ad revenue from just basic banner ads... at least based on how RPMs were a few years ago. I respect that, definitely not the decision I'd make."

"Even assuming a _very_ low $0.01/session, he'd be making $60k/mo. More realistically, if he decided to do this right, and sell direct ads using something like Kevel, with "promoted" game slots or something on the homepage and search, he could do $10-$20CPM direct since it's a large and well known site with high purchase intent. Let's say a conservative 4 impressions per page and 3 pages per session. (12 imps per session * 6m sessions)/1000 * $10CPM is $720k / mo. This is a _very_ achievable number, quickly, for a site that is this close to purchase intent. I don't understand. Even putting a single adsense ad at a $1 CPM would net him close to $20k/mo. This might be one of the least monetized sites I've seen at this scale. Respect."

I found the respect through the lens of monetization to be misguided, though.

I mean, I LOVE that SteamDB and the maker exists. But much of the respect was for him saying no to money. Since when is money (or the refusal of it) the main barometer for what's worthy of respect?! So one dimensional.

But apparently it is. At least for the HN community perhaps.

He's the exemplary exception to the notion that one must always monetize. Sometimes doing something for passion for free is **fine**. A hobby project staying a hobby even when it goes big shouldn't be an anomaly or deviant.

To me, if the project is worthy of respect, it's because it's a generous gift to his community, and the way his community reciprocated by being generous back, with appreciation and participation. It's not the same as just saying no to money.

[Maria Popova](https://twitter.com/brainpicker/status/1619898700389662720), in her review of [Lewis Hyde's *The Gift*](https://www.themarginalian.org/2023/01/27/lewis-hyde-work-labor/), talks about the vital difference between work and labor, and sustaining the creative spirit:

> That spirit is the spirit of a gift — not the transaction of two commodities but the interchange of two mutual generosities, passing between people who share in the project of a life worth living... The spirit of a gift is kept alive by its constant donation… The gifts of the inner world must be accepted as gifts in the outer world if they are to retain their vitality.

I think she described it way better than I can.

As a gift. Kept alive only by an interchange of two mutual generosities in constant donation to each other.

Now *that*, is truly respect-worthy.