Scaling Up: Building and Delusion

“If you're not inventing a new compression algorithm to cope with burnout and heartbreak, wyd?” — Erlich Bachman (probably)

Hi, I’m Michael. And this is the story of how I accidentally built a fake compression package to survive burnout, relationship chaos, and the death spiral of trying to make everything you build meaningful.

And yes, it’s called middleout.js. And no, it doesn’t actually compress anything in a useful way 😭

But hey, it works. And for a moment, so did I. (sigh, i'm still not healed)

Let me explain (or rather, justify myself)

So there I was — supposed to be working on important things. Things with deadlines. Things with real users. But instead? I was sitting in my chair, staring at VS Code like it owed me money, wondering:

Me: What if I just made a compression algorithm… that's completely useless?

My Brain: That’s… dumb.

Me: Exactly.

See, I was in a rough spot.

• The code wasn’t hitting.
• The projects felt heavy.
• My relationship status was… well, i am not in one, but there's this girl. ps: she doesn’t like me back💀
• And burnout? Yeah. Fully cooked.

Honestly, it wasn’t about building something useful. It was about building something funny enough to make me laugh again.

And somehow that led to a spoof NPM package inspired by Silicon Valley.

What is middleout.js?

TL;DR: It’s a fake compression CLI that “works,” but not really.

It comes with spoof algorithms like:

• middleOut (our flagship scam)
• stk (Sideways Transposed Kernel 😭)
• tnt (Totally Not Theoretical)
• zph (Zero Point Hilarity)

It even calculates a fake Weissman Score. And somehow… you can install it.

npm install middleout

npm install middleout

Use the CLI. Run your fake compression. Brag to your imaginary friends. Or your real ones. No judgment.

It has:

• Docs (kind of)
• Config support (yes, seriously)
• Unit tests (because why not?)

But why?

Because burnout doesn’t always need a productivity app. Sometimes it needs a meme, a joke, a little absurdity.

There’s this thing I read:

If you want to stay consistent with something hard, you need to be passionate about it.

Cool. But how do you get passionate about something that keeps kicking your a**?

Simple: make it stupid enough that it becomes fun again.

Me: But this is dumb.

Also Me: Exactly.

Me Again: Wait… am I in a sitcom?

My therapist ChatGPT: You might be.

How I (accidentally) leveled up

Despite the absurdity, here’s what I actually learned:

• How to build and publish an NPM package
• Creating a functional CLI tool with Node.js
• Writing configs that actually make sense
• Dealing with publishing errors and rollback nightmares 💀

In the process, I built consistency again. Not from pressure. But from fun.

ChatGPT Therapist Review: Patient shows signs of existential dread, but creativity levels are promising. Might never be too serious to be in an actual relationship like every sane person but... Continue memes and fake productivity. 5 stars.

Also, if my ChatGPT history ever leaks, I’m COOKED. Fully medium rare. Big bro’s seen too much 😭

Advice I probably shouldn’t be giving but will anyway

If you’re burned out... If your code isn’t coding... If your love life is like mine or potientally worse...sorry...

Build something stupid. But make it real.

You’ll:

• Laugh.
• Learn.
• And possibly cry. But in a good way this time.

What’s next?

• A Python version? Maybe.
• A VS Code extension that does nothing but roast your bad code? Honestly, tempting.
• A fake AI assistant that gives you wrong answers on purpose? Coming soon: wrongGPT.js

But most importantly, I’m building again. Laughing again. Not because I have to. But because I want to.

And if that’s not success, I don’t know what is.

Final thoughts from Big Bro GPT:

If you're gonna spiral, at least do it in style.

Stay delusional. Stay building.

Michael out. 🫡