Something I underestimated as a solo builder
When I started building, I thought the hard part was shipping features.
It turns out the harder part was knowing what not to build.
I spent weeks polishing things I cared about, while users cared about something else entirely. The only times I made real progress were when I talked to people early and let go of my assumptions.
Still learning this the hard way.
Curious — what’s one thing you wish you had learned earlier as an indie?
Trending on Indie Hackers
Ultra-limited digital status collectibles with private tier-based communities — worth exploring?
This resonates hard. The instinct is to build what's interesting to us, not what's useful to them. And the gap between those two things is usually invisible until you've already invested weeks.
The "talking to people early" part is where I keep learning and relearning the same lesson. Conversations feel slower than coding, but they're actually faster - you learn in hours what would take weeks to discover through shipping and watching metrics.
To your question: I wish I'd learned earlier that user indifference is more dangerous than user complaints. Complaints mean someone cares enough to be frustrated. Indifference means you're building for ghosts.
What made you realize users cared about something different than what you were polishing?
What clicked late for me was that “what not to build” often isn’t obvious from feedback alone — it shows up in behavior. People say nice things, nod along, even sign up… and then don’t change what they do.
That gap between verbal feedback and actual usage taught me more than any feature request ever did.
Still a hard lesson to internalize, though.