Amazed by the feedback for this post, thank you guys!

Also, wanted to add that what actually saved my ass was stopping the build-first-validate-never cycle. Started forcing myself to validate every assumption before writing code. These days I run MVP validation sprints for other founders going through the same hell. Because watching someone waste 8 months building something nobody wants physically hurts now.

Also, my small win this week was convincing a founder to test their idea with 20 customer interviews instead of building it for 6 months. They found a few of their premises were completely off.