Spring in Kashmir - Build in Public Campaign by Mehran Shahmiri in Kashmir
Campaign

Spring 2026.

30 Days Build-in-Public Campaign.

Top Takeaways

Relevance is the Only Metric that Pays

Specific, relevant posts turned curious followers into loyal ones. Big numbers did not.

From Day 2

Software Must Be Born from Operations

No off-the-shelf software understood how an ISP in Kashmir works, so I built it while running the business.

From Day 1

Honesty is a Strategy

Saying when not to buy from you builds more trust than saying yes to everything.

From Day 8

Day 4: The Degree Dilemma

Campaign Day 4
Day 4: The Degree Dilemma - Photo 1 - Build in Public Campaign by Mehran Shahmiri in Kashmir Day 4: The Degree Dilemma - Photo 2 - Build in Public Campaign by Mehran Shahmiri in Kashmir

I'm a CS student in semester 4. I also run two companies. Honestly? I'm not sure the degree is worth it, for me.

Let me be precise about what I mean.

I'm not saying education is useless. I'm saying a CS degree, for someone already running production infrastructure and shipping real software, is a poor use of 4 years.

Here's my reality:

  • When I study networking protocols in class, I already understand them, because I've debugged them at 2am when a router config broke and 200 customers lost internet.
  • When I study databases, indexes aren't abstract, I've watched queries time out on a live FreeRADIUS database serving real users.

The classroom isn't teaching me anything the field hasn't already taught me better, faster, and with actual consequences.

So why am I still enrolled?

Well, social pressure, family expectations, and the nagging fear (not mine, the people close to me fear this) that the one time I need that piece of paper, I won't have it.

Not exactly a compelling academic mission.

I think the degrees, especially in CS, made sense when information was scarce and credentials were the only signal of competence. Neither of those is true anymore.

What signals competence now: things you've built, problems you've solved, systems that run in production with your name on them.

I have those. The degree is catching up.

Day 4 of my 30-day build-in-public series. Every day I share what I'm actually building, at ViberNet and at my software agency.

Tip: Controversial but honest beats safe and forgettable every time. The goal isn't to avoid disagreement, it's to say something true that other people are thinking but not saying. That's what gets shared. That's what builds a real audience.

Say the thing. Own it.
BuildInPublic StudentFounder Kashmir Founder Education
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