Indie Hacking is Weird
By day, I’m a high-powered executive. Strategy meetings, performance reviews, investor decks—the full theatre production. People wear suits. There are dashboards. Sometimes, there’s applause.
But then night falls.
And instead of sipping champagne at an F1 party in Monaco, I’m hunched over my laptop, trying to figure out why my button is slightly off-centre in Chrome but fine in Firefox. Again.
This is indie hacking.
And it’s... weird.
The Double Life
There’s a strange cognitive dissonance in spending your days talking about market share and capital efficiency—and your nights Googling “flexbox align bottom right but also center vertically??”
At work, I delegate. I strategise. I send emails with words like "leverage" and "synergy."
At night, I’m reading MDN docs and trying to decide whether the primary CTA should be blue or slightly bluer.
And honestly?
I love it.
Why This Is Better Than It Should Be
Corporate work is like being on a spaceship. High-tech, high-speed, but you’re pressing buttons far removed from the thing you’re supposedly flying. Everything’s abstracted.
Indie hacking is like building a canoe with your bare hands. In the rain. With a spoon.
But at the end, it floats—or sinks—and you know exactly why.
You write some code. You put it online. Someone might actually use it. And if they really like it? They give you money. That’s it. No steering committees. No quarterly alignment calls. Just… value. Traded for money.
It’s almost suspiciously pure.
Oh, and if you’re wondering what I’m building: it’s this weird little SaaS. It helps you automate client document collection. Early days. Feedback welcome. Unless it’s mean.
It’s Also Absolutely Bonkers
Let’s be clear: this is not glamorous.
You will:
- spend 4 hours fixing a layout bug only to realise it was a missing semicolon
- launch something you think is brilliant and hear nothing but crickets
- have existential crises because someone on Hacker News said your landing page has “1998 vibes”
But you’ll also:
- ship things
- learn more in a week than you did in a quarter
- wake up to your first $9 Stripe notification and feel like you’re Jeff Bezos
Totally get this. I left my job to build full-time and it’s been the weirdest, most exciting ride.
Some days I’m deep in flow building products, other days I question everything.
But I’ve realized, most indie founders I work with feel the same. The weirdness is the work.
Indiehacking is weird, yet satisfying.
Absolutely loved this, David! That feeling of being deeply connected to what you’re building (even if it’s 1AM) is unmatched.
Totally relate to the day-job vs. indie life contrast. It’s like two versions of yourself coexisting—one in pitch decks, the other in Figma chaos and console logs.
Also super curious about your SaaS—what kind of documents is it for? Writing as in productivity/docs, or more creative/longform?
Following along—this is the kind of energy that keeps this community awesome. 🙌
Thanks for the kind words! I'll be following your journey too...
SAAS automates client document collection.
I used to work like that too. Some people think it’s boring, but I actually loved it. Writing code while also thinking about how people will feel using the product—it really makes you think deeper about human behavior. And when someone finally pays for what you built? That’s such a proud moment.
It is interesting to see that many people are enthusiastic about coding! I am willing to dig into Indiehack and learn more haha
I "CANNOT WAIT" for my first sale and to get the Bezos feeling. I also can vouch for the amount of things you will learn as an IndieHacker. It's super helpful outside of IndieHacking as well
Corporate by day, builder by night — not because it’s cool, but because it’s the only way something real gets made.
No gatekeepers. No buzzwords. Just code, a browser, and a quiet shot at freedom.
Appreciate this post. It reminds me why I left the noise.
Video game like almost!
Hey dude, just looked at your landing page. The above the fold is very unspecific. It would be good if you could let ppl now that exact pain you’re solving. I only in the faqs I grasped what the product does. Ideally it should make you feel here is value in the above the fold section…
So true. The immediacy is addictive.
Obrigado pelas palavras!
de nada
Absolutely nailed it.
This is exactly what it feels like, one moment you’re planning out strategy, the next you’re deep in a CSS rabbit hole wondering why your layout hates Chrome.
Building Chessvia has been the same kind of weird joy. We’re teaching an AI coach to talk, analyze games, and even roast you a bit, then wondering why its voice sounds different in every browser.
It’s not always pretty, but when someone plays a game, learns something, and pays for it? That’s the magic.
And that first $9 Stripe ping? I felt that too, same mix of shock, pride, and a quiet little “maybe this thing’s real.” I still remember the username. It wasn’t about the money, it was that someone out there, a stranger, believed enough to pay. That moment stays with us!! Keep going, we’re all building weird little things that matter.
Your AI tool sounds insane. Getting good traction?
Thanks for asking, yeah, we started seeing some really good early signs, not huge numbers, but enough to feel like it’s clicking with the right kind of people.
Still lots to fix, but when someone says it helped them finally “see” a tactic or made them laugh mid-game, that’s the stuff that keeps us building.