All articles and posts.
Why so many indie devs walk away from their side project around week six. The real reason, explained through the 60-year-overturned theory of learned helplessness.
The real reason indie devs spend six months polishing an MVP is sunk cost. A 1985 Arkes experiment explains the launch-avoidance circuit and the one-line question that breaks it.
When the first reaction to a five-star review is "they misunderstood," you're inside a circuit Clance & Imes named in 1978. Paulhus's 1998 follow-up found the paradox — doubters actually outperform.
Why solo devs start 30 side projects and finish 3. Volkow's 2009 dopamine reward pathway study and Kashdan & Silvia's 2009 curiosity research, plus a 48-hour idea-queue prescription that cuts new folder creation.
The 17 indies in my benchmarking folder were just the planes that came back. I revisit Wald's 1943 bomber problem and Denrell's 2003 vicarious-learning paper to unpack survivorship bias inside the indie ecosystem.
Why post-launch updates keep slipping. Csikszentmihalyi's flow channel and Deci & Ryan's self-determination theory explain the circuit that makes 0→1 thrilling and 1→100 a wall.
I had 14 five-star reviews and one 1-star wrecked five days of coding. Baumeister's 2001 paper Bad Is Stronger Than Good unpacks the indie developer's negativity bias.