As a developer, I’ve spent a lot of time chasing output — more commits, more side projects, more lines of code. It felt productive. But lately I’ve been thinking: what if I’m measuring the wrong thing?

In research, there’s something called the h-index. It’s a way to track both how much you publish and how much impact your work has. You don’t just get credit for writing a paper — it has to actually be used and cited by others. That stuck with me.

I’m not a researcher. I write code, build products, sometimes write or share things online. But I’ve started to think about a "developer’s h-index." Not for status — but for clarity.

What if I only counted the projects that actually helped people? What if I only cared about the ideas that sparked action or created something new for someone else?

Maybe I have 3 projects that each got at least 3 people saying, “This helped me.” That’s more meaningful than 30 repos gathering dust. Maybe I’ve written 5 posts, and 5 strangers saved or shared them — that’s a signal.

I’ve come to believe this: volume isn’t value. You don’t need to build 100 things — just one thing that resonates deeply.

There’s this great quote by Richard Feynman:

"To do real good physics work, you do need absolute solid lengths of time... So I have invented another myth for myself: that I'm irresponsible. I'm actively irresponsible. I don't do anything."

That mindset really hit me. He deliberately avoided distractions so he could focus on what mattered. I think developers need that too. We say yes to too many things. We try to ship fast, make noise, stay relevant. But the deeper stuff — the useful libraries, the clean tools, the elegant ideas — they all come from focus and patience.