[mkirklions]

>I fall into the "Build before talking to customers" trap constantly. Even though I know it's "wrong", it is hard to escape it because of the simple problem of not knowing who to talk to.

There isnt necessarily a 'right way' to do things.

I have received terrible advice from marketing/business people. Showing people my MVP was fine for some customers, but others didnt trust me based on a low quality landing page.

While I wanted to make everything perfect and add a feature before presenting it, I was pressured into showing people.

What I thought they'd say, they said. What I thought they wanted, they wanted.

3 years later, things are fine. I worry I created some skeptics that spread negativity(which I've seen).

There is something to be said about building your vision.

As a note/recommendation, don't be absolute in either. Ask for feedback from friends along the way.

[fuball63]

I spend a lot of time reading stuff, but I'm starting to think that what I really need is just confidence and persistence.

I'm learning more and more that with many things in life, everything is a gray area. Trying to distill something as complex as success into a ruleset is impossible.

Your story about the MVP is what makes me nervous; it's good to hear that there is some wiggle room when it comes to the MVP impressing or flopping.

[heavenlyblue]

It took me years to realise that whenever a non-tech person would see the ugly UI he would actually lie to me about the prospects and give me some generic advice because they simply didn't want to appear dumb.

Not all of them are like that, but you get used to the overthinking approach most of the techies take so you expect some critique rather than some sort of defensive take on the matter.