How a Simple LLM Experiment Taught Me to Stop Overthinking

We’re already deep into 2025.

At the start of the year, we all had aspirations, goals, and plans—visions of what we wanted to achieve.

Dream Hibernation

But for most people, those ambitions are already on the back burner.

Not intentionally.

Life gets busy.
Priorities shift.
And before we know it, our goals collect dust until December, when we realize another year has passed.

Why Does the Grip of Grit Weaken?

More often than not, it’s not lack of motivation—it’s anxiety.

We don’t take action because we doubt if it’s good enough.

Paralysis by Analysis

We get lost in questions instead of execution:

💭 Where do I start?
💭 Is this good enough?
💭 What if it doesn’t work?
💭 What if I waste time and resources?
💭 What if it does work—can I handle what happens next?

This fear of the unknown paralyzes us before we even begin.

Or worse, we spend months building something… only to realize nobody wanted it.

The Antidote: Build Confidence Through Rapid Iteration

The best way to break free? Stop aiming for perfection.

Instead, embrace rapid prototyping.

✅ Break your project or idea into its simplest form.
✅ Strip it down to its bare essentials.
✅ Test it.
✅ Review, iterate, or pivot.

How Rapid Prototyping Helped Me Tackle LLMs

When I first thought about building an LLM, I hesitated.

It felt overwhelming:

❓ Where do I source the data?
❓ How do I train models?
❓ What kind of hardware do I need to fine-tune an LLM?
❓ Wait… how do LLMs even work?

Then I kept seeing Hugging Face mentioned everywhere—books, Twitter, blog posts.

And I realized: What if I just did the ‘hello world’ of LLMs?

So I did.
I launched a basic LLM on Hugging Face and demoed my progress for the world to see.

That one small step removed my fear, built my confidence, and gave me clarity on my next steps.

Now, I understand the landscape—and I know exactly where I want to go next.

Your Rapid Prototyping Framework

If you’ve been stuck overthinking, here’s a simple checklist to take action:

1. Define the Core Hypothesis

• What’s the core idea?

• What’s the smallest thing I can test?

• What problem does it solve?

2. Build the Minimum Viable Test (MVT)

• What’s the fastest way to validate this idea?

• Example: A landing page, mockup, Instagram page, basic API, chatbot demo.

3. Launch & Gather Feedback

• Share it with potential users/customers.

• Measure reactions: Are people interested? Does it solve their problem? Would they pay for it?

4. Decide: Iterate or Pivot

• Did the test validate the core idea?
  ✅ Yes → Build the next smallest piece.
  ❌ No → Pivot or scrap it without wasting major time or money.

What’s Next?

Instead of spending months trapped in overthinking, you can start seeing real progress this week.

So ask yourself:

🤔 What’s one idea you’ve been overthinking?

Take one small step today—and get to Definition of Maybe.