Building in public on hard days, between blood draws, long walks, and a son coming home.

Some days don’t make highlight reels. Today was a cracking lost one: blood draw to start, a long walk to clear the head, and a wall of fatigue that didn’t care about my calendar. My son’s coming home soon—good noise, good interruption—and I’m supposed to work on two things that both matter: the book and LifeOS. Honest ledger entry: I am wiped.

That’s the whole point of building in public on hard days. Not because struggle is spectacular, but because it’s normal. The question isn’t “Did you crush it?” The question is “What still moved, however small?”

The Two Things That Still Matter

I keep two anchors even when I’m tired:

• The Book: one scene, one beat, one paragraph where the voice stays true, even if the word count doesn’t.
• LifeOS: one “thin slice” that a tired brain can still ship—usually a UI polish, a micro-bug, or a test.

Everything else is applause management. These two are the work.

A Micro-Plan for Wiped Days (ϕ-scaled)

I use a tiny, golden-ratio loop when energy is low:

1. 5 minutes — Triage: list three tasks with the best payoff per minute.
2. 8 minutes — Ship a thin thing (LifeOS).
3. 13 minutes — Write a true thing (book).
4. 3 minutes — Log it publicly.
5. 2 minutes — Close the tab and go be a person.

That’s 31 minutes total. It’s not heroic. It’s honest. It’s the smallest repeatable shape I can keep when the day fights back. It keeps me building in public on hard days without burning tomorrow.

Today’s Thin Slice (LifeOS)

• UI Nudge: confirm the List↔Grid toggle states persist after relaunch (UserDefaults double-check).
• Metadata Row: make sure size/modified/MIME align cleanly at small widths.
• Commit Message: “UI: persist List↔Grid; tighten metadata spacing.”

Ship notes like these are boring. Great. Boring is sustainable. Sustainable is how we get new features later.

Today’s True Line (Book)

When I’m exhausted, I don’t chase pages. I chase one line that belongs. If it still rings tomorrow, it stays:

“Circles are promises your feet can keep, even when your head is loud.”

That’s enough. One sentence can hold the door for a scene.

How I Decide What’s “Enough”

• If the line is honest and the commit is visible, the day counts.
• If my son walks through the door and I hug him solid, the day wins.
• If I can say, “I moved the book and LifeOS,” the future is funded.

What I’ll Do After Rest

• Book: expand that line into a short beat (200–300 words), keep the voice steady.
• LifeOS: review the DriveItemRowView at two sizes (narrow/wide), prepare the next token-based call test.
• Public: post the two-line log and invite one sentence from you.

This is building in public on hard days: a small ship, a true line, and a little mercy.

— Rev. Brian Scott O’keefe (randomblink)

“Ship the smallest true thing; rest; repeat.”