- In winter 2023, the author, an independent developer and educator, aimed to create another educational product for developers despite personal and global challenges like a revolution, pandemic, and war.
- With Refactoring.Guru's success, the traditional creator strategy of 'make, publish, wait' was questioned, especially amid AI advancements like ChatGPT 3.5 threatening information-based products.
- The author considered a practice-based course inside an IDE, focusing on guided learning with real tools, initially choosing VS Code for its accessibility and JavaScript stack compatibility.
- Despite demand for an IDE-based Refactoring course, burnout led to choosing Git as a smaller topic to test the new educational format.
- As a solo indie dev, business considerations included market trends, product lifecycle, traffic growth, and monetization, with SEO identified as a primary distribution channel based on past success.