On the surface, it seems obvious: running that many sites is going to burn anyone out! However, through it all, I got to work alongside incredible people, really talented folks who inspired me to learn more about business, investing, and being fired up to build whatever was next. That kept me going, despite rolling into every Friday wiped out.

I’ve invested just under 15,000 hours toward this role and here’s what it taught me:

People care more about projects when they know the creator(s)

Trying to build anonymously is incredibly difficult. I’m not sure if it’s simply because it feels good when we support a creator, or if it’s because having a face to the project adds validity, or something else. I do know that silently pushing work into the ether and hoping it finds an audience without your voice is nearly impossible.

Have laser-focus on one project at a time, not several

This doesn’t mean you can’t build lots and lots of projects. However, focusing on one at a time and seeing it through saves significant mental bandwidth compared to project-hopping each day. And yes, burnout is a real thing when juggling 30 projects. The only cure that I know of is truly giving yourself time to recharge. More seat time in front of a screen is not the answer. Delegate and automate as often as possible.

AI is reshaping the web faster than most people realize

It’s a consolidation of information. The importance of individual sites is becoming less clear, but there are new opportunities as well. Having good ideas and an understanding of proper site architecture is enough to prompt your way to building anything, and fast. When starting new projects, ask yourself: is this useful beyond an LLM? If not, keep thinking.

Authenticity is the new currency

As AI gets better at mimicking text, images, and videos, genuinely connecting with people feels more valuable than ever. Everyone is racing toward AI-generated content, which inevitably means the pendulum will swing back toward the middle at some point. Perhaps blogs will become popular again or we’ll see goods saying “Made by a human” rather than just the country of origin.

Gatekeeping information is a dead concept

I might’ve paid for an online course before, I’m not now that I can generate any course I want with a $20 AI subscription. The web got sloppy with search sponsors and sites buried beneath cookie consents, subscription popups, and more Google ads than actual content. That web is fading quickly as users go straight to LLMs for answers.

Building in public (again)

I’m loving the AI energy in the design and dev community right now, it’s reminiscent of why I started learning HTML and CSS two decades ago. I’ll be pushing a lot of personal projects this coming year, mostly tools I’d want to use, and sharing what I learn along the way.

It could be expanded to include your online activity as well, which we may not often consider a factor. The social media platforms you join, who you follow, the forums you read, which shows you watch, the video games you play; these all have a massive impact. In fact, maybe even more so since our phones are always with us and make consumption too easy, too often.

As a parent, I’m jotting this down to remind myself that paying attention to online habits also matters.

I spent most of the holiday break writing everything from scratch, incorporating our family pets into the story, and using AI to generate the art. My year was heavily consumed by work across many projects and yet I was most proud of this one.

When I surprised her with the gift, she did exactly what any 6-year-old would do: took one look, tossed it aside, and said, “A book? Boring!” Oh man, I can laugh about it now but that was a solid Dad dent!

Four months later, she came home with schoolwork where the class was spelling the word “once”. The final sentence she came up with was, “Once my dad rote a book.” Yeah, I almost cried. It goes to show that our kids are learning from us, even when we don’t think so.

Rewind to midsummer, I talked myself into joining a running club with co-workers. This all started as a personal dare to step out of my comfort zone. Despite many fond years of playing baseball, I was a diehard hater of running.

A mile and a half was my max at first and, let’s be honest, it was a cycle of jogging, becoming winded, walking, then jogging again. Genetically, I have an athletic build and keep active but computer work crushed whatever cardio endurance I previously had.

Competition is a powerful motivator, though. After running daily for two weeks, I was hitting 4 miles and glued to work’s “Fitness” channel in Slack. My quads were sore but growing quickly and I was borderline euphoric at the end of long runs. That’s when my heart raised a demoralizing caution flag with worrisome pains in my chest.

I called my doctor, ordered a stress test, and was sternly told not to push past 115bpm until results came back. That was a long week waiting, tossing between guilt over neglecting health and being flat-out pissed off. I finally got the good news that the hospital couldn’t find anything wrong but I would need to ease into running at a smarter pace.

Shortly before all this, I finished helping my buddy Kale with a logo for his new fitness company. I asked if I could quiz him on my health questions during a hike and that snowballed into weekly workouts together. For those who don’t know already, Kale is one of the most down-to-earth people you’ll meet. His modesty and welcoming approach to healthy fun almost makes you forget his wildly impressive track record—like finishing two DECA Ironman races.

When someone invests their time and energy into you, there’s added incentive to not let them down. After weeks of continued work, my heart and lungs started catching up to the demand. On my longest 8-mile run, I remember the distinct feeling of breaking through a barrier.

Then came the next challenges: How fast can I run the descent? If I wear a headlamp, can I squeeze a couple extra night miles in? How long can I wear shorts into winter? I started seeking new challenges, right down to little tests like standing directly in the cold water when the shower is first turned on. Without fail, every surpassed obstacle caused me to look for more.

Fitness bled confidence into all other aspects of my life. Every time I laced up my shoes when I didn’t want to—when it was cold outside, still dark, or freezing rain—it ended with a sense of achievement. Every morning win set up the rest of my day for success.

Start the new year off right and choose to do the hard things.

What it comes down to, at least for me, is feeling like I’m in a head-to-head battle with my autonomic system. Not being able to regulate a speeding heart, for example, gives the illusion of an internal brawl. It’s a fight between my brain trying to tell my autonomic system to chill out.

I also believe that everyone has an innate method of communicating naturally. For me, that’s writing. For you, it might be speaking, art, music, or other forms of expression. Because I prefer the methodical qualities of writing, it makes public speaking frustratingly uncontrollable and irreversible—there’s no undo shortcut on a recorded Zoom call.

With the summer of 2020 requiring an onslaught of video conferences, I have been determined to get better at speaking. I hope these tips can be useful to anyone else dealing with anxiety.

Expect and accept the fight-or-flight syndrome

Before my presentations, I go to war with a rapid heartbeat and constricting, scratchy throat. I’ve tried breathing techniques, cough drops, holding a keepsake coin, and even whiskey—none of those worked. Too often, I go into a meeting thinking, “I hope I don’t get nervous this time,” and feel defeated once the inevitable uneasiness takes over.

A major breakthrough was when I realized I can move through those feelings. I finally recognized that a racing heart can be a mandatory but momentary hurdle, something you get hit with and keep moving past. It’s like a football player slipping a tackle while staying on their feet, then spinning and dodging the rest of the way down the field.

Once I accepted that I would be nervous rather than trying to avoid it, the effects became far less severe.

Noise-cancelling headphones are worth every penny

If you’re like me, anxiety causes you to focus more on how you sound rather than what you’re actually saying. This is especially true on video calls when I have a bunch of faces staring back at me, seemingly judging every syllable and facial expression I make.

Noice-cancelling headphones help me get past that by muffling the sound of my own voice. I don’t know the science of why this helps or if it’s a placebo effect but it works. My best guess is by muting how I sound—like a scratchy voice—it helps me not pay as much attention to those nervous symptoms. As a side benefit, it forces me to speak a little louder and clearer.

Video calls add to the complexity

On video calls, participants yawn, look out windows, stare down at their phones, visibly type while you’re speaking, and conjure up any number of distractions. Add to that, most conference software includes a video of yourself—like having an awkward mirror to talk to.

First off, I immediately hide my own self view. Zoom, for example, allows me to still be visible to other members without having to stare at myself. For someone who overthinks every little action, hiding that self view lets me relax much easier.

Second, when it’s my turn to present on a call with many team members, I place another app window over all participant videos except one to “hide” them. This drastically reduces eliminations and the reason I leave one person visible is so I have a warning in case my microphone is muted. I’ve found that using a text editor to cover the videos works best because I can also store notes in that document for my presentation.

Reframing my perspective on public speaking

I’ve researched a lot of books and podcasts on improving my public speaking and discovered a couple gems that I remind myself with each time. Keep in mind, a piece of advice doesn’t always impact each person the same way so I recommend searching for your own motivation as well.

“Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time.” —Viktor Fankl

This quote hit me like a ton of bricks and I give credit to Hugh Jackman for mentioning it on the Tim Ferris podcast. I read Man’s Search for Meaning right after that.

My biggest issue, and possibly something you can relate to, is ruminating on my past conversations. After every meaningful get together, important phone call, or video conference, I subconsciously replay those events in my head for days afterward. I’ll analyze how confident I felt, what I said, or kick myself over things I totally forgot to mention.

Viktor’s quote has become my pre-call mantra. It helps me remember to loosen up since my biggest post-call critique is wishing I had not been so tense.

The second reminder I keep telling myself is that whatever I’m nervous about now is just a stepping stone to something bigger. Whenever I worry about an upcoming social situation, it’s less scary if I view it as a means toward bigger goals later on.

Preparing for the moment

Before a high-stress call, I’ve learned to keep busy up to the very last minute. Without a mental distraction beforehand, it’s too easy to spend hours fretting how it will go. This only increases the pressure as that wasted time feels like an investment that must be paid off with a flawless call.

For any lengthy presentations with slides, I practice a day or two in advance and no more. Previously, I tried committing my entire speech to memory with dozens of dry runs but it made the final delivery very robotic.

Another simple pre-call tactic is to workout, get a haircut, and dress clean. The exercising has helped me burn off some of the nerves and the rest builds confidence.

The ultimate cure

Using any type of crutch to get through anxiety never worked for me. I tried Rescue Rememdy, L-Theanine, and American Ginseng, to name a few. Other times, I was desperate enough to go with old-fashioned “liquid courage”. Granted, being drunk will loosen anyone up but a cop-out like that completely erased any sense of victory.

I only saw improvements in my public speaking when I did more of it and started to become desensitized. Additionally, this is a skill that I have to intentionally work at or it fades quickly, similar to exercising muscles. No excuses, no blaming something else, no avoiding the situation; only practice has helped me so far.

When a presentation goes well, I write down as many details as I can to repeat that success later on. For times where my nerves get the best of me, I convince myself that I’m my own worst critic and the audience probably didn’t notice my mistakes.

Surrounding myself with positive motivation has also helped tremendously. Podcasts and audiobooks have been my go-to lately. Not to sound like a commercial for Tim Ferris but his guests have been profoundly inspirational. His interview with Susan Cain is directly related to this subject.

Other sources of motivation

Here are more creators I follow who regularly share good advice or have a speaking confidence that I try to learn from:

• How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. This is one of the most impactful books I’ve ever read and I wish it was required reading in school. I personally enjoyed the audio version read by Andrew MacMillan because his voice matches the old-fashioned feel of this book. Lots of invaluable lessons on being empathetic and putting others before yourself. How to Stop Worrying and Start Living is another one to consider.
• Gary John Bishop wrote the book Unfu*k Yourself, which is also great in audio form. I hate the title—it takes away from the credibility—but don’t let that stop you from drawing from the solid advice this book offers.
• Smarter Every Day. Destin is not only a master at breaking down complex ideas but he has a charisma that is worth trying to mimic. When I watch one of his videos and see his sheer excitement, it’s hard not being happy with him. That’s a great skill to have.
• Evan Carmichael is another YouTube channel I get motivation from. A lot of his videos are curated collections of wisdom that has helped me focus on big-picture goals and less on anxiety.
• Last but not least, putting myself into more social situations that I would normally back out of has been key to building that social muscle. Stepping outside of my comfort zone is always difficult beforehand but rewarding afterward.

Below is my hand-picked selection of the best free stock photo sites that I often reference when designing websites. The majority of these sources offer completely free, do-whatever-you-want licensing but it’s still a good idea to check the copyright details before downloading.

I’ll continue to update this collection so bookmark it and check back.

Unsplash

Unsplash kicked off the free stock revolution. They were one of the first to start giving away totally free images and have built an incredible catalog of content (over 2 million at the time of this writing). The photo quality and community following is nothing short of astounding. They’ve also partnered with several popular services, which you can see on their Developers page.

The one major drawback, in my opinion, is they changed their original CC0 license to their own Unsplash license.

StockSnap

StockSnap is one of the few big free stock sites still offering a CC0 license. Their catalog is not as extensive as others but the site is updated regularly and has a lot of original content you won’t find elsewhere. My personal favorite categories are flat lays and technology, which have a solid mix for creating mockups that I use a lot in my Creative Market designs.

Pexels

Pexels has really transformed over the years and grown into a major player in the free stock world. Their photo quality is extremely high and focuses heavily on models, portraits, and other people scenes. I suspect they’re also commissioning content, which helps keep a steady flow of fresh content.

They’ve added videos as well and it’s some of the best free stock videos you’ll find anywhere. Unfortunately, Pexels also switched their license away from CC0 around 2018, which may have been related to being acquired by Canva. If the site feels familiar, it’s because it has a very similar design to Unsplash.

Burst

Burst (made by Shopify) is relatively new in terms of site age but they’ve quickly grown to be one of the best sources of free stock photos. Although they have some CC0 content, most of it is licensed under their own custom terms. Just be sure to take note when viewing each individual file.

One unique aspect of Burst is their content is usually topical. For example, during the summer of 2020, they focused a lot on images with people wearing masks, working from home, and other relevant scenes. They have at least a handful of very consistent contributors, like Matthew Henry, with a clean, modern style to their photos.

Gratisography

If you need silly, quirky stock photos, Gratisography is the only site you need to visit. Created by the wildly creative Ryan McGuire, this site is full of funny and unusual stock photos you just can’t get anywhere else. To top it off, the peace-of-mind licensing makes it super easy to use.

Pixabay

Pixabay has been around for a long time and has an extensive photo collection that has grown into videos and vectors as well. Compared to other large stock sites, I’ve found Pixabay’s content quality to be a little more random and slightly lower in quality. My best guess is their submissions aren’t reviewed as closely and let in just about any content. That being said, they still have one of the top free stock sites available as long as you’re ok using their own license.

Free Nature Stock

Free Nature Stock is my own side project and I’m extremely proud of it. I have personally captured every photo and video on the site and share them for free under the CC0 license. I’ve been working on this for a handful of years now and the collection is growing quite large for a one-man crew.

Along with capturing the content, I also built and maintain the site itself. If you’re looking for outdoorsy shots, especially Milky Way images, I’d like to think my site can help you out.

Night Sky Stock

For even more free nature photos and videos, check out Night Sky Stock. As the name suggests, this site focuses solely on night photos with an emphasis on space images. Night Sky Stock’s also offers a CC0 license, which really gives you the most flexibility on use. If you’re looking for free space photos, moon shots, and starry night images, Night Sky Stock is the way to go.

Foodie Factor

With so many competing stock photo sites, it’s always nice to find one that focuses on a single niche and does it well. Foodie Factor offers free magazine-quality images with a CC0 license.

New Old Stock

New Old Stock has a unique, vintage collection of photographs that take you back in time. While the old-fashioned content is very specific, there is a significant amount to browse.

Startup Stock Photos

Startup Stock Photos doesn’t appear to be updated often anymore but they still have a useful set of free stock photos of business scenes, freelancers, and work-from-home offices.

ISO Republic

ISO Republic is a blend of free stock photos and videos, although much more full on the photo side. The site is updated often and all content is public domain under the CC0 license.

Picjumbo

Victor Hanacek has been building Picjumbo since 2013 and crafted a really nice selection of free images. He mentions being rejected by traditional stock photo sites and deciding to give his work away for free, which is a story I can relate to after struggling to sell on the typical marketplaces.

There’s also a Premium side of Picjumbo where you can get access to more content. My one tiny gripe with the site is it’s relatively heavy with ads.

Picography

Picography is a little on the small side compared to other massive collections listed above. However, it’s still updated every week and has a great variety to choose from.

The first thing I photographed was the night sky and I was totally blown away with how many stars lit up on the LCD screen. That led to an intense fascination, hundreds of hours researching, countless nights chasing the Milky Way, and a brand new passion.

My time-lapse videos and night sky images are some of my most prized creations. I’m often recognized for that work more than I am for my web design and development, which I’ve quietly been doing for over a decade.

I’ve also captured invaluable photos of our family, precious memories created through a hobby that started almost by accident. I even make money selling photos once in a while. Heck, I’m fairly certain my current employer hired me because of my stock photo side project.

Never be afraid to explore new interests and thrive on continuous learning.

I don’t think it’s bad advice, really. Passion is a requirement to mastering anything and the world benefits from people who can perfect their craft. Not to be undervalued, however, are those willing to work tirelessly and relentlessly even when they don’t have their dream job.

Imagine a group of people — let’s say 50, to make it easy — decide they want to start a small town. Their first task is assigning roles to build and maintain the entire community. If 47 of those people raise their hands and say they want to be travel bloggers because it’s their passion, how well is that town going to run? How are the remaining 3 people going to become carpenters, farmers, doctors, and fill every other need?

The world grows with big thinkers but it survives with hard workers. Both are equally as important.

In an age where many people spend hours Photoshopping their profile photo, brushing out every pixel of authenticity, don’t feel guilty if your career isn’t perfect yet. Take pride in working hard.

If you’re a Tesla owner and have answers, message me on Twitter. I’d love to learn more.

Augmented reality while driving.

Assuming 1) safety levels reach a point where drivers aren’t required to focus on the road anymore and 2) virtual reality headsets significantly reduce form factor, would it be possible to use VR to change your view of the driving experience?

For example, if worn at night, you could view in total darkness via the car’s night vision cameras. Or, as a simple example, VR could give you a full field of view unrestricted by blind spots like door posts. Heck, you could see right through the door itself and look directly at the road beside you if programmers chose to add that feature in VR.

As a fun example, what if you could change your daytime view of the road to look like something out of an 80’s arcade racer? VR headsets are cumbersome these days but as their physical size shrinks to roughly the size of regular sunglasses, these ideas become feasible.

The future of motorcycles?

Will on-road motorcycles and recreational ATVs explode in popularity when manually-driven cars get phased out and are potentially outlawed in the future? I can envision people craving that freedom of control again and finding it with alternatives like a Harley Davidson.

Or, is the ultimate plan to remove self-driven motorcycles from the road as well?

Autonomous vehicles in winter conditions.

From what I know, Teslas have surprisingly good traction control in winter conditions. However, I’m not convinced if a mostly camera-guided car still works in total white-out conditions.

Being in New England, I’ve driven through snow storms so thick that I had to hang my head out the door window to see because the wipers couldn’t clear the windshield fast enough. Say nothing about the road being totally white with no visible lines. How does that work in a Tesla?

Driving at night without headlights?

I can envision nefarious owners driving at night with no headlights, either by manually turning them off (if that’s possible) or just taping over them. Since the car would be self-driving via cameras and radar, it seems like you could cruise in total blackness with zero lights at all.

You might be asking why someone would do this but that’s much less important than asking can you do this. If the latter, then I guarantee some people will.

The steering wheel needs to remain. For now.

Voice and touch controls would have to drastically improve before removing the steering wheel makes sense. There are too many scenarios where the car would need some kind of input to get where you want to go. If voice and touch became the only options right now, that’d be the equivalent of trying to do your day job via Siri or Alexa alone. AI needs to vastly improve for that experience to go smoothly.

Tesla with a pull-behind trailer.

Can a Tesla back up with a small trailer, like a pop-up camper or a boat? I’m curious if it can account for the extra axle in reverse or make wider turns to avoid curbs.

Unexpected events on the road.

How does a Tesla handle a speeding police car or ambulance coming up from behind? Currently, people are able to pull over when seeing these events in the rear view mirror but would an autonomous vehicle be smart enough to do the same?

Data is Tesla’s long game.

I predict that the long-term vision of Tesla is not competing to sell cars but to gather data collected from having such a large fleet.

For example, witnessing a Google “Street View” vehicle taking pictures for their map software is a rare occurrence. From what I can tell, they just don’t have that many vehicles capturing photos.

Now, imagine hundreds of thousands of Teslas with several cameras each and state-of-the-art onboarding processing, all funneling data back to Tesla. Overnight, they could create the next best map software if they wanted to. This is a very basic example but there must be countless other uses for their data, such as monitoring driver decisions, road conditions, and so on.

This could very easily turn into a privacy issue for Tesla owners if their driving records are closely tracked and stored. I believe cars themselves are not the main vision of Tesla; it’s the data they can gather from having what are essentially computers on wheels.

Does this “fleet brain” also tie into Open AI somehow? Just about all of Elon’s ventures tend to overlap.

Honest empathy

Building a staff relationship that is relaxed yet highly productive is a balancing act.

Being empathetic toward team members is the best approach for both sides. This is no more complicated than treating others as you’d want to be treated.

For example, rephrase this:

“How can I make so-and-so get more work done?“

Into:

“What can I offer so-and-so to help them be more efficient?“

The latter is always going to be received better. It focuses on taking care of staff first and, as a side effect, they’ll be more equipped to do their work.

Most importantly, it places the responsibility of building a productive team back onto the manager, where the liability should be.

In short: take the time to get to know your team on a personal level and genuinely care about them. Getting to know each other as people, no just coworkers, makes for a much tighter bond.

Build confidence

Everyone wants to be heard and see their opinions integrated into their work. They don’t want to be told how and when to do everything — that doesn’t build confidence. Full ownership of projects helps grow pride in the work.

Additionally, giving public credit whenever possible helps raise morale. This could be as simple as posting in the company chat about a team member’s recent achievement.

Likewise, if someone makes a mistake, that’s almost always better handled one-on-one rather than in the open to avoid embarrassment.

Growth opportunities

A successful business is more than making money; it’s about positively affecting the lives of staff who contribute their time, the most valuable commodity.

Every team member needs to be given the chance to personally grow their knowledge, face exciting challenges, and use your company as a stepping stone on their own path.

If a year goes by and all they did was earn the company more money but didn’t personally grow, that’s a recipe for an unhappy employee.

Above all, trust in delegating

As someone who worked solo for over a decade, I still struggle with this one. It can be extremely difficult to entrust tasks that you feel you’re capable of doing yourself. There will be moments when you debate whether it would be quicker to explain the task to staff or just knock the work out yourself.

The problem with doing the work is you can’t get that time back. Every minute spent solving a problem takes away from other missed opportunities. Micromanaging is even worse as it eats away at your time and the staff’s.

It’s the manager’s job to trust those helping and it’s the staff’s responsibility to be accountable for their work. You’ll know fairly quickly if someone is being productive or lazy. Like the folks at Basecamp said, you want a staff that doesn’t need a lot of oversight and will surprise you with how much they get done on their own.

Accept that you also can’t be right all the time or do all the work. Be open to feedback and be impressed with how much more you can achieve when there are multiple brains working on a shared goal.

Be the example

Whenever possible, end your workday after your staff to show you’re putting in the hours, too. Nobody likes thinking the “boss” is out playing golf while they’re working hard.

Try to avoid phrases like, “I’m busy and will get back to you when I can.” That indirectly says to staff that they are secondary to you.

Also, stay healthy and take care of yourself. When someone else relies on your guidance, you need to be in a solid state. Put yourself in a position to be helpful. If you’re burnt out, not sleeping well, or generally unhealthy, you’re not going to have the energy to offer guidance when needed.

Protect your flow state

Most jobs benefit from long stretches of uninterrupted work time to “get in the zone”. I’ve found this to be especially true for design and development tasks. It’s important to account for this in when scheduling.

As one example, think carefully on meeting times. Placing a call in the middle of the day often breaks any morning flow and shortens the chance of reaching that state in the afternoon. Cranking through meetings at the start of end of the day helps protect a healthy block of uninterrupted work time in the middle.

Encourage receiving questions via email or other less immediate forms of communication. This helps let you and staff get to questions as you have time. Also, create an understanding that responding instantly via Slack or similar chat tools is not a requirement.

Be decisive

More importantly than making the perfect decision is acting quickly, particularly when others are waiting on you. You’ll never be infallible but it’s worse to be wrong and have spent too much time overthinking it.

It’s better to act quickly, then adjust course based on those results. Rinse and repeat.

Closing

Have any manager tips or books you’d recommend on the subject? Reach out on Twitter.