Someone asked me in Discord: "What was the most challenging part in building this?"
My answer surprised them.
The Real Challenge
It wasn't the code. I've been programming for 18 years. I know how to build things.
The hardest part was finishing it.
The Trauma
A few years ago, I tried to rebuild PlayCode from scratch. I called it PlayCode 3. I worked on it for almost a year.
I never shipped it.
I burned out. Not once. Ten times. I got sick 3-4 times a month. My body gave up before the project was done.
Here's the thing: I made a huge mistake.
I accumulated so many changes. I literally redid everything. As a result, I couldn't finish it, and I also couldn't just pause and take a break.
I was left with a binary choice — either finish it or throw it away and continue working with the old production version.
It was hell. I felt really bad afterwards.
During that time, I could have been working a normal full-time job and earning good money, really good money. But instead I spent a year. I just wasted it.
That experience left me with a fear: "I can't finish what I start."
The Trap
So when I started this rewrite, I tried to be smart about it. To not be so afraid, to not impose overly complicated releases on myself, I named it PlayCode 2.1 — just to fix a little something.
But the problem was that I went down the same path again.
I started adding features one after another, redoing stuff here and there, and suddenly there was no way back. I had already done a lot, but I couldn't finish it either.
I burned out, or something else happened.
In the end, everything dragged on for a full year — this PlayCode 2.1. The closer I got to the end, the more terrified I became. What if I burn out again? What if I get sick? What if I can't finish?
The volume of work is colossal when you work alone. And persistence alone doesn't help. If your body breaks down, nothing you can do will save the project.
The Solution
So I built a tool to help me finish.
It took me three months of distraction just to build a product that would help me live a more correct and productive life.
I called it Partner.
It's an AI assistant that helps me track everything: my patterns, my thinking, my emotions, my physical state. Every day, I write reports: when I woke up, what I ate, how I felt, what I did.
In three months of using it, I sent it 4,600 messages.
That's not an exaggeration. That's the real number.
Why This Worked
Partner didn't write code for me. It didn't solve technical problems.
What it did was help me stay in a state where I could work.
It helped me:
- Recognize when I was burning out before it was too late
- Understand my energy patterns
- Make better decisions about rest, food, and work
- Keep going when I wanted to quit
The hardest part of building isn't programming. It's doing it every day, not sometimes.
Staying consistent. Not burning out. Not giving up.
That's what Partner helped me solve.
The Result
Yesterday, I shipped PlayCode 2.1.
Yes, I finally finished it and managed to pull it off, but it was fucking hard. A year of work. Finally done.
I proved to myself: I can finish what I start.
And I couldn't have done it without the tool I built to keep myself sane.
Want to try Partner yourself? Check out getpartner.ai