Eat your own dog food
A concept Juan meets and likes: dogfooding, from 'eating your own dog food', the idea that creators should use their own product in real life, exactly as users would. He saw it with Anthropic, whose people breathe Claude, using it every day. The name captures the ache of it: a product early on tastes like flavorless dog food, and eating it while you build is quietly painful, because you keep doubting, is this actually as cool as I think, or am I hallucinating that people will like it. When Juan started the French challenge on Severo it was pure willpower; now, with the new curriculum, the feeling is finally getting good. The value is that only by living inside your own unfinished thing do you feel the friction a user would, but it comes with a trap the next entries will pay for: dogfooding tells you it works for you, and being your own user is not the same as being validated by real ones.
// trace: where this idea came from
- ↳ video diary @ 23:50 (dogfooding, comer tu propia comida de perro, usar tu producto como los usuarios)
- ↳ video diary @ 24:31 (lo vi con Anthropic, los manes respiran Claude, lo usan todos los días)
- ↳ video diary @ 25:34 (es doloroso al principio, ¿la gente sí piensa que esto es tan chévere como yo?)
- ↳ Entry 260-1: Eighty thousand views on Reddit (el reverso, ser tu propio usuario no es lo mismo que validarte con usuarios reales)
A concept Juan meets and likes: dogfooding, from “eating your own dog food”, the idea that the people who build a tool should use it in real life, exactly as a user would ▸ 23:50. He first saw it with Anthropic, whose team breathes Claude, using it every single day ▸ 24:31. The name captures the ache of it. A product, early on, tastes like flavorless dog food, and eating it while you build is quietly painful, because you keep doubting: is this actually as good as I think, or am I hallucinating, does anyone find it as cool as I do ▸ 25:34?
usa tu propio producto aunque al principio sepa a comida de perro →
When Juan started the French challenge on Severo, it was pure willpower, dura y pura; now, with the redesigned curriculum, the feeling is finally turning good, though there’s still plenty to fix ▸ 25:56. The value is real: only by living inside your own unfinished thing do you feel the friction a user would, the button that’s slightly wrong, the topic that repeats. But it carries a trap the later weeks will pay for in full. Dogfooding tells you it works for you, and being your own most-qualified user is not the same as being validated by real ones. Eat the dog food to find the bugs; just don’t mistake finishing the bowl for proof anyone else is hungry…
// continued in
no entry has continued this idea yet: the arc is still open