I believe it's freeing to try, fail, and eventually exclude life paths and gain a new focus and understanding of what's next.
I don't know anything about your project, please ignore if I'm off the mark. But is it possible you spend time building something without validating it's a solution people actually need and pay for? It's very difficult to do because you have to face feedback technology doesn't provide. On the other hand, few people focus on validation first. At least I don't, because it's quite tedious and I don't typically work on side projects with the intention to make money.
> But is it possible you spend time building something without validating it's a solution people actually need and pay for?
Absolutely.
The service I provide is also available in a free form, but lacks some of the features I offer. It definitely is the case that those features I offer are - apparently - not as valuable as I had hoped for the target demographic.
If I were to do this whole thing again, I would probably lead with finding product market fit, rather than blindly building something and hoping for the best.
I don't know anything about your project, please ignore if I'm off the mark. But is it possible you spend time building something without validating it's a solution people actually need and pay for? It's very difficult to do because you have to face feedback technology doesn't provide. On the other hand, few people focus on validation first. At least I don't, because it's quite tedious and I don't typically work on side projects with the intention to make money.