Lost, Lonely, and Building My Way Out: A Manifesto for Creators

I have been feeling a bit lost lately.

You know the feeling? It’s that static in your head. It’s the sensation of sitting on a bus, staring out the window, and feeling like your thoughts are scattered across a thousand different directions. My brain feels like a browser with too many tabs open—one part of me is worrying about setting up a Notion widget, another is anxious about the future, and a quiet, nagging voice is asking: “Am I actually enjoying what I’m doing?”

I’ve been feeling lonely, too. Not the kind of lonely where you have no one to talk to, but the kind where you feel like you haven’t found "your people" yet.

The Search for the "Galileos"

I found myself asking today: What kind of people am I looking for?

I realized I’m not looking for status seekers. I’m looking for the obsessed. I’m looking for the people who bury themselves in the library not because they have to, but because they are chasing a question. I want to be around the people who forget to eat lunch because the code they’re writing is finally working. The hackers, the game devs, the people who see the beauty in the grind.

I am looking for the Galileos. The ones who take risks to move humanity forward, even by an inch. The ones who aren't distracted by the external world because their internal world is on fire with ideas.

The problem is, when you are surrounded by people who don't share that vision, you don't get the incentive to keep going. You build something complex using AI, and they might look at it and ask, "So, what's the point?" They don't see the art in the architecture.

I Am a Builder

In the middle of this mental chaos, I had a realization. I asked myself, "What am I?"

The answer wasn't "a student" or "a future engineer."

I am a Builder.

I love to create stuff. It’s that simple. And when you are a builder, the satisfaction shouldn't come from the applause at the end. It has to come from the process itself.

I’ve been so worried about the destination—about "making it," about finding the right investors, about success—that I forgot the oldest cliché in the book because it happens to be true: It is the journey, not the destination.

Embracing the "Showmanship"

There is nothing wrong with wanting to show off your work. In fact, I think as creators, we need to. Not arrogance, but "Showmanship."

We need to brand ourselves not as people who want to be successful, but as people who are currently building. I need to stop waiting for the perfect prototype or the perfect team. I need to just build, and then show the world what I’ve made.

If I can’t find my tribe immediately, I will build my bat-signal. I will create things so interesting and so genuine that the right people—my fellow builders—will eventually find me.

To The Unanswered Questions

I still have questions. I still have doubts about my discipline. I still feel the urge to be distracted. But I am learning to be okay with being lost.

It is better to be lost and asking questions than to be blindly following a path I didn't choose. I am okay with the unanswered questions because I know that as long as I am building, I am moving forward.

So, to anyone else feeling scattered today: Just build. Don't worry about the result. Fall in love with the work. The rest will follow.