I made failwall.co. When I began making it, I spent time writing an essay explaining what it is and what it does. I planned on putting this essay in the "about" page of failwall.
happened:
It didn't work because I didn't think about positioning the product. I knew its strengths, but didn't put proper thought into how the product would be positioned for best audience. My essay had to be completely discarded, and some features of the site also had to be changed.
learned:
I learned that when making a product, the first thoughts should be in marketing. Marketing is not a separate, slap-on feature of a product, but an integral part of the product and its features. I should have put more thought into this when beginning the project. It would have saved me lots of time and work.
Apr 26, 2026
tried:
I tried to make an AI agent that manages my Substack posting and restacking. It would have a profile of me, update the profile when needed, and post to Susbtack based on my target posts. It would send to telegram for human reveiw, and was a full agent.
happened:
I tested the captcha/bot detection right when I began the coding, and I got passed it pretty easily. But then, when I tested it again and again, as I glued together parts of the code, the captcha started seeing it. Apparently, although I got passed it, still, when I did it too many times, it detected me.
I was able to use my method to get passed the captcha once or twice, but it flagged me as I did it more. This was even though it was not a repeated
learned:
I learned that when testing something - any idea - be it code, writing, business etc - it is not enough that it just works. You must understand the mechanism, and, only with that understanding can you know whether the solution is fitting.
Sometimes, what works once will not work many more times, and only by really understanding can you get around this.