Jason Leow

Here's a dopey idea:

**A micro-SaaS to help you regularly archive your favourite projects and websites in the [Wayback Machine](https://web.archive.org/).**

### The problem
This had happened to me before: I write blogs on platforms for a time (e.g. the now-defunct xanga.com). I stop blogging. I don't care about the blog. Platform shuts down. I lose all my writings. I start to care about the blog, but too late.

Another scenario: I wished I remembered to take screenshots of my earliest MVP versions of a website or app, so that I can look back and reminiscience, or share/tweet about it. But once past, you can't retrieve it, unless you roll back the website to that state. Or it's a project you're shutting down, or a domain you're giving up, but wished there was a way to reminiscience about it for free without needing to pay for domain or web hosting to keep the website up.

Third scenario: Maybe this isn't your own project but another website which you're a huge fan and want to archive it for memory's sake.

Right now, to archive it you got to go the the Wayback Machine website and paste the URL in to save it. Manually. I wished there's was a way to set and forget. Kind of like third party automated offsite backups of your database where you don't have to remember to do it.

### The solution
So what if there's a micro-SaaS that provides regular archive snapshots? Three pricing plans - daily ($10/m), weekly ($5/m) and monthly (Free). Login, pay and save the URL you want to archive, and forget. You get to toggle on or off a monthly email update of how many snapshots it captured.

### The tech stack
I could do the archiving manually at the start. So all I need for an MVP would be a landing page, payment link and a form. If I get more than 10 customers, then start creating automation around it. Apps like [Browserbear](https://www.browserbear.com/) and [Crontap](https://crontap.com/), or even Zapier, could be the services I use to build it quickly, rather than coding up my own.

*What do you think?*

Talked at a [Twitter Space](https://twitter.com/Christintweets/status/1664402831372349440) with Christin about the intersection of indie hacking, entrepreneurship and spiritual practice, mindfulness and growth.

Not something I talk about much, but definitely underlying all my actions and decisions on my indie journey:

- Having to unlearn unhelpful beliefs and narratives I have about the world and about myself. For example, unlearning my relationship with money, hard work. I've never had a 'job' that constantly challenged me and my belief system more. The personal growth is 1000x over the any valuation or revenue.

- Right livelihood and practising empathy and compassion in the workplace. This started from my last job as a designer in government, to bring about public policies and services that are more citizen-centered. At the root of that work is helping public officer generate empathy for citizens. I think I still bring some of that into my work in indie hacking, by having empathy for my customers and incorporating those insights into the features, during support requests.

- Marketing reframed as helping others succeed. I never liked marketing. But that's because I mistook bad actors and encounters in the past as the entire stage. Ever since trying it out and learning that I can do marketing if I do it as helping others succeed, as being helpful to a fault, as acts of kindness it all aligned inwardly. Practising generosity.

- Last but most important, is the daily mindfulness required to be building an audience and being online. [Mindful consumption is not just food but also food for the mind - media, conversations, people I follow](https://plumvillage.org/mindfulness/the-5-mindfulness-trainings/). Practising loving speech and deep listening. Not engaging in toxic arguments with toxic people.

My practice ain't perfect, but I do hope to try everyday.

https://www.instagram.com/pluginsforcarrd/

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https://m.facebook.com/groups/carrdusers/permalink/1289569234974463/?mibextid=qC1gEa

https://pluginsforcarrd.substack.com/p/different-background-images-for-different

https://www.reddit.com/r/Carrd/comments/13kn0iq/different_background_images_on_different_sections/

https://t.me/carrdchat/3949

https://discord.com/channels/408153478309871616/873611623472975924/1108617256935624734

https://www.indiehackers.com/post/different-background-images-for-different-sections-in-carrd-21d3950f10

https://twitter.com/pluginsforcarrd/status/1659066498625961985

Email sent

Today I woke to yet another sleep score in the 60% range, feeling groggy, unrested, grumpy, and wondering why I slept so late at 10:45pm. I was of course, doomscrolling on the phone waaay past bedtime.

*This needs to stop.*

My sleep's all over the place, and I've either been too tired, too stressed or too busy to do anything about it, fueling a vicious cycle of poor sleep, poor coping, poor bedtime sleep hygiene, which then results poorer sleep, poorer coping... you get the picture.

I need a sleep makeover.

I need to get back to the sleep routines where I woke up to 90+% sleep scores, feeling rested and ready. I've done it before. I know how to do it:

- last coffee at lunchtime
- topping back up my magnesium levels
- active movement throughout the day
- light or no dinner
- no phone screens after dinner
- bedtime at 9:30pm latest
- meditate before sleep
- keeping thermal comfort (20ºC)

So it's not a lack of knowledge but a lack of motivation. That's the problem with slumps – they suck the life and energy out of you and all the powerful habits that were easy before becomes hard now.

That's the only reason sleep is an infinite game. The infinite part isn't that the knowledge gets forgotten but life throws seasons at you where you might struggle with time, effort or discipline.

Those are the real challenges, and I have no ready answers on how to solve it, other than (try to) resolve the root issues, and after due diligence is done, we just have to wait it out till motivation returns.

Maybe the acknowledgement "This needs to stop" is the signal I need that it's now returned, or at least, returning...

For Side Project Weekend this week, I managed to fix a bunch of minor bugs on Lifelog. No new features.

- Fixed window jumping to bottom when typing a long post.
- Added auto-scroll down to keep typing input at vertical center of screen.
- Fixed position of snackbar editor blocking typing input of textarea.

From today's build sessions, I found myself pondering... *Is that it? Are these features all to it?* I think the initial burst of joy from building and launching anything at all, after a two-year hiatus, is now waning. I want to continue building on Side Project Weekends for sure, but I also want to be more intentional. I don't want to just build features willy-nilly, but features that will push the product ahead.

Because not all features are created equal.

And I feel the ones I've been building so far since I started Side Project Weekend were "quality of life improvements" as @therealbrandonwilson would say, and great fun to build, but doesn't push the envelope enough.

What would make Lifelog special or surprising?
What can people remember it by, other than just for daily writing?
Other than being a writing platform and community with streak counters, what else could it be?

Do I want it to be a habit building platform?
Or more for writing for the long game?
Or is it more social, about the community?

Many questions, no answers.

I've always said I wanted to pivot Lifelog. But to what... I don't know yet.

Perhaps the answers lie in how I use it, how the folks here currently use it, what makes them stay or come back time and again...

Time to rethink and research and re-explore!

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. Not withstanding they might be senior software engineers in their day job before, or have honed their coding skills and tech stack to the point that they can do that.

But assuming all things being equal, there's just no way for an indie parent to catch up, let's be honest.

And it's frustrating sometimes.

Because to compare is human. I want to acknowledge that inevitable aspect of life, 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.

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.

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

Let's normalise shipping slow, even while we want to ship fast. Let's affirm, but not make it an excuse.

Being an "indie hacker" is a label. But as with most labels, there's pitfalls of over-identifying with it, and the limiting beliefs/narratives that we unconsciously allow to live rent free in our heads.

One of the most common limiters is "I'm a builder". Most say that as self-defence on why they hate or struggle with marketing, why they build and don't share or distribute. But truth is, you can say to yourself "I'm a builder" but still get good enough at marketing to be dangerous.

Both can be true, not either/or.

It's a fine difference between affirming what's your core versus letting it become an excuse that limits you. Beliefs are like tools. And like every tool, first we shape our tools, then they shape us. The catch is to be self aware enough to stay as a master of the tool, not slave.

Other indie hacker limiters to be mindful of, and it's possible alternative perspectives:

- I hate receiving cold emails, so I don't send them (there's ethical, less slimey ways to send them that's valuable and engaging)
- Ads are annoying, so I don't use ads (Ads aren't annoying if they're what you're looking for)
- MRR is the one true revenue, all else doesn't count (Most businesses in the world are built on one-time payments)
- Focus only on one thing (Plenty of folks who did well juggling multiple projects)
- Do only multiple small bets (Plenty of folks who did well doing just one project)
- Build and they'll come (Thinking pure technical prowess is sufficient is a form of naive and elist narcissism)
- VCs are evil (I've seen startups like Carrd take do a hybrid, non-equity type of VC that doesn't affect how the founders run things and it's like the best of both worlds)
- Solo founder means working entirely alone (Who cares what solo means as long as it works for you?)
- It's faster if I do it myself than to delegate or outsource (Delegating or outsourcing takes more upfront effort setting up but pays for itself downstream)

*What other limters are there?*

It's my birthday month. As with personal tradition, no specific goals for birthday month. But I still want to set broad intentions on how I would want to go about celebrating this month of my birth. Just 2 things this month:

- Relax (different from rest)
- Recalibrate

I'll be busy with consulting in June. So the last thing I want on my birthday is to stress-rush around like a headless chicken juggling consulting, indie products and family. I've done enough of that in the past few months (and years). I want to be more directed and purposeful in starting my new birth year.

Mindfulness, essentially.

I miss that calm and centered self-assuredness. I want to get back to living that way. So first thing is to relaaaaaax. Not resting physically *per se*, because I'll still be busy with work, but to *stop*, inwardly. To relax I first have to stop.

Stop stress-rushing around mindlessly.
Stop feeling like I'm never enough.
Stop expecting more and more.
Stop wanting myself to stop.

Stop, so that I can let go, let loose, and let it relax.

Then I can recalibrate. I can come back to myself. No more feeling disembodied. Back to mindful presence. Mind and body aligned.

So that I can truly live. So that I celebrate this gift of yet another year of being alive and well.

Another year of life.

*Onwards to June!*