I quit my full-time job at the end of October to build Docsy. After two months, I decided to quit Docsy. Before I get into why, let's review what I did in the last couple of weeks.

What I did

I posted the November update on the 8th of December. Here is what I did until the end of December:

• I added a rudimentary interface for working with a documentation agent. This is shown on the screenshot on the top of this post.
• I demoed Docsy to two companies and talked to another handful of people.
• I collected another 15 leads via Docsy's free documentation analysis.

Compared to what I set out to do, I failed two goals:

• I failed in setting up a trial with a company.
• I did not find a location for a documentation meetup. I reached out to a first round of potential locations but didn't find one.

What I learned

Since I won't continue with Docsy, I'll skip what I learned about the problem space. Instead, I'll write about what I learned about myself.

I talked to a technical writer and documentation engineering veteran (10+ years of experience, speaking at technical writing conferences). The conversation was great, we talked about how the field developed, the biggest struggles today, and the most interesting trends we see today. And while the conversation itself was very energetic, it made me realize that this isn't what I want to work on for the next years.

If I wanted to continue, the next step would be to speak with as many people as possible. I would go through the list of leads I have and reach out to people that are active on documentation repos (similar to what is described in this X thread). But I don't want to continue.

How did I get here?

Finding meaning in my work

Why did I start working on something only to find two months in that it's not what I wanted? When I decided to quit my job I based it on two observations:

1. I understood a problem (toil work around software documentation) that seemed soluble as a solo dev (after I built a prototype in June/July) with a potentially big market.
2. I felt energized by the outlook of going all in on and putting myself to the test.

I didn't ask myself if I would find meaning in working on the problem. Sounds a bit stupid to me now, but that question just didn't occur to me. Thinking about this now, I am reminded of a quote from Peter Thiel.

Meaning is found in doing things that are important, that otherwise wouldn't get done.

I started out working with implicit beliefs on both criteria (importance and inevitability) that I do not hold anymore. Around the same time I was questioning the meaning of my efforts, I talked with a someone working on medical devices. The importance of the work they are doing is so plainly visible. You either do a good job and people recover or you don't and they suffer, potentially for a lifetime.

And while I still see value in reducing toil work in documentation, I also see many good ideas and capable builders in the space and don't think it's the most important thing I can work on.

How I feel

So clearly, Docsy was an economic failure. I worked for 2 months and didn't make a single Euro. Interestingly, this doesn't bother me. I knew my opportunity costs from the start and two monthly salaries more in my bank account would not change how I live my life.

I have thoughts like "How pathetic it is to give something up after only two months" or "I should have known myself better". And yeah, sure I would have gotten an ego boost if I had gotten my first business idea until profitability. But then, I know that ignoring what I want doesn't work in the long term. I tried that in the past and it sucked out my energy.

The main feeling I have these days is a sense of time ticking. Figuring myself out is important, but I didn't achieve any results.

What's next

Back to square one. Talking to people, playing around with ideas. This phase is very exciting but until people put money on the table for what I am building it's cheap thrills. I am looking for one thing to focus on. Wish me luck 🤞