Building in Public as a Student

When I started learning cybersecurity and software development, I made a deliberate choice: build in public.

It wasn’t comfortable. Sharing unfinished work invites judgment. Bugs are visible. Mistakes are public.

The safer path is to learn quietly, polish everything, and show up only when you feel “ready.”
But that path hides three problems: no accountability, no feedback, and no real connections.

Building in public fixed all three.

My early projects weren’t great. The code was messy. Docs were thin. Things broke.
And still people used them. Some even improved them.

When I shared Arunya, my privacy-first analytics tool, I got feedback I would’ve never found alone. Someone flagged a security issue. Someone else suggested a feature that’s now on my roadmap.

That’s the part people miss: feedback arrives early, when it still matters.

Connections followed naturally. No cold DMs. No forced networking. Just conversations that started because the work was visible.

For me, building in public is simple:

• Share progress, not just results
• Talk about failures, not just wins
• Be consistent, not loud

It’s not about showing off. It’s about documenting the journey so others can learn, and so I can’t lie to myself about where I am.

If you’re a student, start small. Share what you’re building. Write about what you learned this week.

The discomfort fades quickly. The learning compounds.

The world doesn’t need perfect work.
It needs honest work.