I’m a junior developer and I set myself a challenge: build and launch a free social network from scratch. No investors, no hype — just code, learning, and curiosity. The goal wasn’t to beat big platforms, but to understand architecture, scalability, UX decisions, and what it really takes to ship a product. Now I’m wondering: was this a smart learning project or just a beautiful way to waste time? I’d love honest feedback from people who build software.