---
title: You can build eight things a year (tops)
date: 2023-03-23T18:39:41.440Z
slug: 2023-03-23-you-can-build-eight-things-a-year-tops
author: Thomas Wilson

---
If you could build something (start to finish) in six weeks, and worked worked evenly (and relentlessly) for all fifty-two weeks of the year, you would build about eight and a half products in a year.

It is now (*checks watch*) nearly April (?!)

Have you built those two things?

This check is a useful tonic for when my optimism likes to tell me anything is possible.  

It's a useful selective pressure:  Is the thing you're building now one of the eight things you want to talk about this year?  Or one of the eight bullet points you can put on your CV?  Or one of the eight things your customers will love? 

I think Adam Wathan first introduced me to this on the (sadly dormant) *[Full Stack Radio](https://fullstackradio.com/)* podcast.  

A lot of conversations at work have pulled it out of my brain recently.