Building as Therapy

This is my therapy.

A mini project. High-tempo drum and bass. A problem to solve. A little pocket of time where the rest of the noise disappears and the only thing that matters is getting the thing in my head to behave on the screen.

I will sit down for “an hour”, which is one of the more dishonest phrases in software development, and before I know it I am looking at the clock wondering why it is suddenly midnight.

For a few hours, there is no overthinking. No stress. No worrying about tomorrow. Just building.

The calm inside the problem

That might sound strange if coding looks like work from the outside.

And to be fair, it often is work. Very annoying work, at times. The kind of work where one missing character can waste 40 minutes of your life and then have the audacity to make you feel stupid when you finally spot it.

But there is a version of building that feels different.

When the problem is yours, the pace is yours, and the project exists because you wanted to see if you could make it real, it becomes less like work and more like a place to put your brain.

There is something deeply satisfying about taking an idea from your head and slowly turning it into something tangible. One feature. One bug fix. One line of code. One tiny improvement that makes the whole thing feel a little more alive.

Progress you can actually feel

A lot of modern life is weirdly intangible.

You answer messages. You sit in calls. You think about problems. You make decisions. You move things around systems. Some of it matters, but it can be hard to feel the shape of the progress.

Building gives you feedback.

The button works. The data loads. The page renders. The automation runs. The thing that did not exist this morning now exists, even if it is held together with hope, caffeine and one TODO comment you absolutely should not ignore.

That feedback loop is addictive in the best way. It gives the mind something concrete to chew on. It turns abstract tension into a sequence of solvable problems.

Everyone has their version of this

Some people switch off with Netflix. Some people switch off in the gym. Some people cook, run, paint, play games, go fishing, do DIY, or reorganise the garage with suspicious levels of enthusiasm.

I switch off by opening my IDE and getting lost in a project.

Not because I think everyone should relax by doing more work. That would be an absolutely terrible productivity influencer take, and I would like to distance myself from it immediately.

It is more that building is how my brain settles. It gives the restless part of me something useful to do. It turns noise into motion.

There is also a freedom in personal projects that client work and product roadmaps do not always have. You can try things. Break things. Change direction. Build something ridiculous just because the idea amused you. There is no committee. No Jira ritual. No one asking whether this aligns with Q3 strategic priorities.

Just the problem, the music, and the quiet satisfaction of making progress.

Honestly, I would not have it any other way.

Draft adapted from Brad’s LinkedIn post from 2026-06-18. Source: LinkedIn post.