I Built Software Used by Thousands — Then I Quietly Published a Small Fiction Book
Hi Indie Hackers 👋
For the past few years, I’ve been building digital products and systems used by tens of thousands of people. Most of my work lives quietly behind the scenes — code, infrastructure, platforms, and tools that run without anyone really noticing.
That’s the nature of software.
If it works, nobody thinks about it.
But somewhere between writing code, fixing bugs, and building systems, I started writing something very different.
A small fiction book.
Not a startup guide.
Not a productivity book.
Not a “founder mindset” story.
Just a quiet piece of fiction.
The Idea Came From a Strange Feeling
While building software, everything is supposed to be logical.
Input → process → output.
If something breaks, you debug it.
But life doesn’t behave like that.
Sometimes things go wrong for reasons nobody planned.
Sometimes systems work perfectly — but still produce the wrong outcome for someone.
That strange gap between logic and real life kept bothering me.
Eventually it turned into a story.
The Book: ACHE — What Kind of Life Is This?
The book follows someone named Rei moving through a city where small things keep going slightly wrong.
Not catastrophically wrong.
Just… off.
A plan almost works.
A place is almost correct.
A day almost goes as expected.
And yet life continues anyway.
The story is told through 32 short fragments, forming the quiet shape of a life that doesn’t collapse — but never quite fits the plan either.
It’s not a motivational book.
It doesn’t try to teach anything.
It simply observes something many people experience but rarely talk about.
Building Software vs Writing Fiction
Interestingly, writing fiction felt strangely similar to building products.
When you build software:
- you design systems
- you think about edge cases
- you consider how people interact with something
Writing this book felt like designing a system of small moments.
Each fragment is tiny on its own.
But together they create something larger.
Why I’m Sharing This Here
Indie Hackers is full of people building things — products, startups, tools, experiments.
This book was simply another kind of project.
Not optimized for growth.
Not optimized for monetization.
Just something I wanted to build.
And ship.
If You’re Curious
The book is available here:
📱 Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GS224DVW
📖 Google Play Books
https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=9dTHEQAAQBAJ
🌐 More about the book
https://www.cahyanudien.site/ache-what-kind-of-life-is-this/
I also explained the idea behind it here (in Indonesian):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdQlQ9jzBZo
Either way, thanks for reading.
And if you’re building something — software, writing, art, tools, or weird experiments — keep shipping.
Sometimes the most interesting projects are the quiet ones.
