Some developers seem like wizards. You use their tools and wonder: how?
Laravel Forge. A few clicks and your server is configured, your app deployed, your SSL installed. It feels like sorcery.
So you never try to build anything like it. You assume it's beyond you. Your ambitious ideas gather dust in your notes app.
The developers you admire aren't smarter. They just collect more bricks.
Forge's magic is one technique: telling servers to run commands for you. I'll show you how it works.
Why big ideas die
We all have ambitious project ideas. They feel overwhelming.
So we plan. We map out features. We research frameworks. We feel productive.
But we're not shipping anything. And without visible progress, frustration builds. We quit.
Planning feels like progress. But here's the trap: planning a project you never start wastes more time than running experiments that fail.
Reading tutorials isn't progress. Building something small that works is.
The experimental mindset
Start with small experiments. Tiny, trivial ones even. What matters is that you finish them.
Most developers never finish anything. You'll finish something this week.
Each completed experiment becomes a building block. A LEGO brick you can reuse, combine, or rewrite.
The pattern is simple:
- Experiment — Build something small that works
- Component — Extract what's reusable
- Building block — Use it in bigger projects
Skip step 2 at first. Just finish step 1.
Instead of starting with a blank slate, you eventually start with a pile of bricks.
A real experiment: Remote execution
I wanted to build something like Laravel Forge. Instead of building the whole thing, I asked: what's the one thing I actually need?
The answer: running scripts on remote servers. Every "magic" Forge feature is just running a script somewhere.
I thought it would take weeks. It took one afternoon.
The experiment: Enter your server IP and user. Run any script.
What I learned:
- Laravel's Process facade for SSH commands
- Running scripts synchronously vs. asynchronously
- Wrapping long scripts with callbacks
- Uploading scripts via SCP, then executing via SSH
- Writing output to a file for easy retrieval
Simple enough. One brick. Dozens of possibilities.
Try it
I made the experiment public. You can try it here:
The compound effect
One experiment unlocks all of this:
- Provision fresh servers
- Configure Caddy sites
- Set up MySQL databases
- Manage cron jobs and supervisors
- Handle firewall rules
- Build deployment flows
Each becomes a recipe. Each recipe becomes a feature.
Stack enough experiments, and you're not imitating Forge anymore. You're building your own version—tailored to how you work.
Start one experiment
What idea have you been sitting on?
Forget the full roadmap. Don't wait until you're ready.
Find the one thing you need. Build one small experiment. Finish it.
That's your first brick.
And your first brick leads to a second. Then a third. Eventually, you look back and realize: you've built something that once felt impossible.