In early 2023, I quit my job to build an app with no experience, no technical background, and no cofounder.
For 18 months, I lived in "monk mode": 80-hour weeks split between studying (technical books, tutorials, quizzes) and building. From design to coding, I read everything I could to be "skin in the game".
Eventually, the app failed, but the real lesson wasn’t about the failure; it was about how I approached learning.
My biggest mistake? I treated reading like work.
I forced myself to consume books as if they were tasks on a to-do list. But reading isn’t work, it’s fuel.
When you treat it like a chore, retention suffers. When it feels like a grind, it starts to feel wrong.
I lacked a system to connect ideas and track progress.
Additionally, without visualizing what I’d accomplished, my motivation eroded. I realized progress isn’t just about moving forward, but about seeing how far you’ve come.
Without that visibility, motivation fades.
So I built a tool to fix this: Cogito, which helps map reading progress, connect ideas, and visualize growth over time.
Reading should feel like exploration, not obligation.
How do you track your learning progress? What’s your system for staying motivated during the grind?
