I'm 27, and I don't want to stay stuck

I'm 27, and I work as a programmer at a small company. The work is ordinary. A lot of the time, I find it boring. And lately, I've been feeling stuck.

That's an uncomfortable thing to admit. I know how to write code, but I'm unsure where my career is going. I don't want to look up a few years from now and realize I'm still waiting for something to change.

So I'm starting here: a personal website, a first blog post, and an attempt to build something of my own.

AI makes me anxious. It also makes me curious.

Seeing what AI can do has made me question my future as a programmer. Will the skills I rely on today still be enough? What will this job look like in a few years? Will I still want to do it?

I don't have answers. The uncertainty is real for me.

But the same tools that make me nervous also make me want to try things. I want to learn how to use AI to turn ideas into products, and see how far I can get as one person.

That means learning more than how to generate code. I need to figure out what is worth building, whether it helps anyone, and how to get it in front of people. Those are questions I want to start working on.

I want more say in how I spend my days

I don't enjoy the routine of sitting in an office every day. I want more freedom over my time and more choice in the work I take on. I want to care about the thing I'm spending my energy building.

Money is part of this, too. I want to make products and try charging for them. Having someone choose to pay for something I made would mean a lot: it would be a concrete sign that I had built something useful to another person.

I've been following indie developers who run their own businesses. Their work makes me curious about what a one-person business could look like for me. I want to learn from how they find ideas, launch products, and reach customers.

My starting point is small

I don't have a product to sell yet. I'm still figuring out what to build. This website is my first step, and a place to keep a record as I go.

My plan is to look for a problem I can understand, build a small version with AI's help, and put it in front of people. Then I want to learn whether they would actually use it and whether they would pay for it.

I'll write about what I try, the decisions I make, and what happens after I launch. I want these posts to be honest enough that I can look back and see what I've learned.

Starting before I feel ready

Maybe you know this feeling: you can do your job, but you're no longer sure it's taking you toward a life you want. And the idea of doing something different is both exciting and difficult to act on.

That's where I am. I'm a programmer who feels uncertain about the future and wants to try building another option.

I don't know what this will turn into. I do know that I want to give it a real attempt. This is the beginning.