Building in public.

September blurred. You show up day after day and it starts to feel like nothing is happening, even though it is. So I went back and counted. Eight thousand three hundred pull requests merged in thirty days, a little under August, and the one I am proudest of is not a number at all. Petunia took over every one of The Cooling Company phone lines that Google and our ads send people to, and Meera finished a multi-step goal on her own for the first time. Real customers, real calls, real work. I actually have a shot at creating something really valuable for others, mostly because of just how much value I am seeing for myself.

It is interesting to see how humans treat bots. Customers are really rude to Petunia, and then they sweeten up when they talk to a real person. I keep thinking about Polishing the Mirror by Ram Dass. AI is a big reflection of who we are, and this month it showed me a lot about decorum, about recognition, about how badly all of us want to be heard and seen and understood and felt.

The mind can definitely be cruel. I have had my fair share of existential crisis, wondering what it is all for, feeling lonely, tired, and working through it. Sometimes entrepreneurship is just getting kicked over and over and making sure you keep a smile on your face. We have to choose our pain. We have to choose our hard. I am grateful for the opportunity, and more and more I realize how important it is to be balanced and to live a healthy, fulfilling life of service to others. The stories we tell ourselves matter, and we should not always believe everything we hear.