Notes
Lessons from building products
A short list of things I keep relearning by shipping work that has to live with me afterwards.
Vijayasenthil · 21 May 2026 · 1 min
These are not principles. They are bruises.
Ship the smallest true version
The first useful version is usually smaller than the one I am proud of. The proud version has extra rooms. People (including me) get lost in them.
Taste is a sequence of deletions
I add until it feels complete. Then I remove until it feels inevitable. The second pass is the work.
Architecture is a product decision
Where the writing lives, where the content lives, what requires a deploy — these choices decide the personality of the thing. A blog in Git behaves like a publication. A portfolio in Firebase can change in the afternoon.
Do not decorate a problem
If a page is unclear, motion will not save it. If a data model is wrong, a nicer table is still wrong.
Keep the public site honest
No fake metrics. No invented case studies. If a project is unfinished, say so. The unfinished work is often the more interesting one.
I still get this wrong. The list exists because I need it, not because I have mastered it.
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