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How I Learned to Build, Ship, and Keep Going

I've tried a lot of things.

Video editing. Web development. App development. IoT. AI/ML. Freelancing. Content creation. Building products.

Some worked.

Most didn't.

And honestly, I think that's one of the biggest reasons I'm where I am today.

I didn't have some perfect roadmap.

I didn't know from the beginning that I wanted to become a software engineer. I didn't have a five-year plan. I wasn't naturally productive. And I definitely didn't have everything figured out.

I just kept trying things.

Somewhere along the way, I discovered something I genuinely enjoyed:

Building things.

Not just learning about them.

Actually building them.

Breaking them.

Fixing them.

Shipping them.

And eventually watching real people use them.

That's what this story is about.

If it was easy, anyone could have done it.

— Anish

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PHASE 1 — I Was Just Curious

My interest in technology didn't start with programming.

I was always curious about how things worked.

I liked mathematics, solving problems and competing with myself. I enjoyed figuring out things that initially looked difficult.

But I had no idea that this would eventually turn into software engineering.

At that point, I was just a kid trying different things.

And that became a pattern throughout my life.

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PHASE 2 — I Learned What Being Uncomfortable Actually Means

One of the biggest turning points in my life came when I moved away from what I was comfortable with.

New environment.

New people.

Different language.

Different way of studying.

I struggled.

There were situations where I genuinely felt like I didn't belong.

But something interesting happened.

I adapted.

I learned.

And eventually, I started performing well.

That experience taught me something I still use today:

Being bad at something doesn't mean you're incapable of doing it.

Sometimes you're simply at the beginning.

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PHASE 3 — I Tried Everything

This was probably the messiest part of my journey.

I wanted to figure out what I actually liked.

So I tried things.

Video editing.

Java.

DSA.

Android development.

IoT.

Arduino.

AI/ML.

Web development.

Some lasted days.

Some lasted weeks.

Some I completely hated.

I didn't have a laptop for a long time, so I even used browser-based development environments to experiment with programming.

At one point, I built a small chatting application.

Looking back at the code today, it wasn't exactly production quality.

But I didn't care.

I had built something.

I had connected a frontend to a backend.

I had experimented with WebSockets.

I had deployed something.

And for the first time I understood something important:

I don't just want to learn technology. I want to build with it.

That changed everything.

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PHASE 4 — College Wasn't the Main Teacher

College taught me things.

But working on real projects taught me something completely different.

I started doing internships and freelance-like work while studying.

At one point, I was doing everything:

• Video editing
• Graphic design
• UI design
• Web development
• Client work
• College

It was chaotic.

Sometimes I worked late into the night.

Sometimes I had no idea how I was going to finish everything.

Sometimes I completely messed things up.

But every project gave me another problem to solve.

And every problem made me better.

I learned that real development isn't:

Learn technology → build perfect project → deploy.

It's more like:

Build → Break → Debug → Search → Learn → Fix → Repeat.

That loop became my real education.

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PHASE 5 — I Started Building Products

At some point, I stopped asking:

"What should I learn?"

And started asking:

"What can I build?"

That's when I started working on products.

One of the projects that taught me the most was NoteBuddy.

The idea was simple: create a better way for students to access and manage their notes.

I built it from scratch.

I handled the development.

I deployed it.

I watched people use it.

And eventually, it reached:

• 1,800+ users
• 100s of paid users
• 200K+ views
• 15K daily traffic during exams

Those numbers were exciting.

But the biggest lesson wasn't the numbers.

It was realizing that something I built could actually solve a problem for someone else.

That feeling changed how I looked at software.

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PHASE 6 — From Developer to Engineer

After working on different projects, I started going deeper into software engineering.

Backend systems.

APIs.

Databases.

Microservices.

Caching.

Message queues.

Real-time communication.

Docker.

Cloud deployments.

Mobile applications.

Frontend systems.

Distributed systems.

I stopped being satisfied with:

"It works."

I started asking:

• Can it scale?
• What happens when traffic increases?
• What happens when something fails?
• Can this be cached?
• Can this be processed asynchronously?
• How do I monitor it?
• How do I make this easier to maintain?

That mindset changed the way I built software.

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PHASE 7 — Building My Own Products

Eventually I started building products that were much closer to the things I actually wanted to create.

LinkCrio became one of them.

It's not just another project sitting inside a GitHub repository.

It's something I'm actually trying to turn into a real product.

That means thinking about:

• Product design
• Backend architecture
• Feed systems
• Real-time communication
• Performance
• Mobile applications
• Infrastructure
• User experience
• Growth
• Content
• Community

And that's where I realized something:

Building a product is completely different from building a project.

A project asks:

"Can I build this?"

A product asks:

"Can I make this useful, reliable and worth coming back to?"

That distinction changed everything for me.

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What I Actually Learned

Looking back, I don't think my journey was about finding one perfect path.

It was about eliminating paths that didn't fit me.

I didn't discover software engineering by sitting down and asking myself:

"What is my passion?"

I discovered it by trying things.

And that's probably the biggest lesson I can give someone.

Don't overthink your passion.

Try something.

Build something.

Give it enough time.

See if you enjoy the process.

Then try something else if you don't.

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How I Learn Today

My learning process is pretty simple.

1. Get curious

I first try to understand why something is interesting.

If I'm learning a technology, I want to know what it can actually do.

2. Learn the basics

I don't try to master everything before starting.

I learn enough to begin.

3. Build something

This is where most of the learning happens.

4. Hit problems

Eventually I'll get an error.

Something won't work.

The architecture won't make sense.

Performance will be terrible.

That's where the real learning begins.

5. Learn what the problem requires

Instead of randomly consuming tutorials, I learn what I need to solve the problem in front of me.

My loop is basically:

Code → Error → Understand → Learn → Fix → Repeat

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Systems Beat Motivation

For a long time, I thought productive people were simply more motivated than everyone else.

I was wrong.

Motivation comes and goes.

Some days I want to work for ten hours.

Some days I don't want to open my laptop.

So instead of depending entirely on motivation, I started building systems.

I use task management, project boards, reminders and structured workflows to keep track of what needs to happen.

The goal isn't to become a productivity machine.

The goal is simple:

Make the right thing easier to do.

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Building in Public

Another thing I've started taking seriously is building in public.

I'm building products.

I'm learning new technologies.

I'm making mistakes.

I'm figuring things out.

And instead of keeping everything hidden until it's perfect, I want to share the process.

Not because everything I do is impressive.

But because the journey itself is valuable.

Someone might learn from a mistake I made.

Someone might discover a technology through something I built.

Someone might start building because they saw me build something.

That's enough reason for me to share.

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What I'm Building Now

Today, I'm focused on becoming better at one thing:

Building useful software.

That means continuing to improve as a software engineer while also building products of my own.

I'm working on projects like:

• LinkCrio — a social platform I'm building
• Hirvia — a tool focused on job searching and career management
• Backend and distributed-system projects
• Mobile applications
• Experiments with new technologies

I don't know exactly where all of this will take me.

And I'm okay with that.

Because I've learned that having every step planned isn't necessary.

You just need to know the next step.

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The Principles I Try to Live By

If I had to compress everything I've learned so far, it would be these:

Build more than you consume.

Tutorials are useful.

But building teaches differently.

Get comfortable being uncomfortable.

The biggest growth usually happens when you're doing something you've never done before.

Don't be afraid to start badly.

Your first version will probably suck.

Build it anyway.

Learn by solving problems.

Problems are often better teachers than courses.

Systems beat motivation.

Don't depend on feeling motivated every day.

Ship.

A finished imperfect product teaches you more than a perfect project sitting on your laptop.

Keep experimenting.

You don't need to know your entire career path today.

Try things.

See what sticks.

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What's Next?

I don't consider this the end of my journey.

It's barely the beginning.

I'm still learning backend engineering.

I'm still learning product development.

I'm still learning how to build better systems.

I'm still making stupid mistakes.

And I'm still trying things that might completely fail.

That's okay.

Because I don't want a journey where everything works.

I want one where I keep getting better.

So if you're reading this while you're confused about what you should do with your career, here's what I'd tell you:

Don't wait until you have everything figured out.

Pick something.

Learn it.

Build something.

Break it.

Fix it.

Ship it.

Then do it again.

Maybe you'll discover that you love it.

Maybe you'll discover that you hate it.

Either way, you'll know more than you did yesterday.

And that's progress.

If it was easy, anyone could have done it.

I'm still building.

I'm still learning.

And I'm just getting started.

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That's my story so far. What's yours going to look like?