I messed up.

On August 12 2026, I made a rookie mistake. But I only realized the gravity of it today, on November 6 2026, almost three months later.

The Internet can be cruel, sometimes… It’s like a beautiful fire. Sometimes, we get burned.

Here’s the story. In 2024, I bought the domain https://learninganxiety.com as a placeholder for my book, Overcoming Learning Anxiety. I thought that when I’d make it big, this domain would communicate big. It was short, it was punchy, and it was as clean as they get. A million-dollar domain, as I like to call them.

Well, can you believe that I let that domain expire, intentionally? I must control myself not to facepalm as I’m writing this. That was so ignorant of me to do! I had it! I let it go! And for what!

(Deep breaths)

Here’s what I learned, as I tumbled through each steps.

  1. When your domain expires, there is a 7-day grace period to get it back (at least on Namecheap, where I was registered). It might cost you more money, but you won’t lose it.
  2. If you expire your grace period, your domain is scheduled for deletion. That lasts about 2 months where you can’t do anything but wait.
  3. Five days before the domain is scheduled for deletion, it will get listed on websites like https://dropcatch.com that allow you to bid in order for their system to snipe the domain for you. That comes at a cost of 60 USD if the snipe is successful, plus the registration rights.
    • I was too cheap to attempt this. I thought my domain was not well known enough to be of interest to anyone (I make myself cringe when I think about that). I figured I was getting a deal, by not bidding, to keep my domain as stealthy as possible. I hoped I’d just get it for cheap and ride into the sunset.
    • I later learned that these systems are not really reliable anyways, so I don’t regret it much. But still I could have try more when there was still time, doh!
  4. Then, at some random point, the domain gets released. Whoever picks it first wins!

And so, this morning I refresh whois.com to see if my domain is ready to be bought.

And I learn that it’s been registered the day before.

By someone in Arizona. On GoDaddy, of all places.

It was hard to concentrate on my tasks after realizing that. My domain was gone. felix@learninganxiety.com, which appeared on the early versions of my English book, would never be mine again. Someone would get my email (not much, but still).

How could I have been so dumb? It was hard to keep these questions away. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt so angry with myself. I had a nice thing and I let it go. And I have to live like I’ll never get it back. Because I can’t afford to pay a parked domain.

So I called my friend Benoit to help me calm down, which he did. I wanted him to reassure me that I hadn’t thrown my life’s project away just to save $20.

“That sucks, but it’s not a real problem. Just buy another one, like https://learning-anxiety.com. Is that still available?”

Yes, it was. And I knew it. When I was eyeing my old domain on registrars, it would glance at me, like “Hey! I’m here! Don’t you want me?”

I was close-minded. I didn’t want people to go to “learning dash anxiety.com” or “learning minus anxiety.com.” I feared they would go to the wrong places, like “learningdashanxiety.com” and “learningminusanxiety.com”

Then again… get a grip Félix. Do you want to lose your plan B? Buy. BUY!!

Well, I have learning-anxiety.com now. So I guess I’ll find out soon enough what people understand when I say “just go to learning minus anxiety.com.” Hopefully they’ll connect the dots.

There’s a silver lining here, a good story that works in a symbolic way.

In the past, I had learning anxiety. In fact, I had https://learninganxiety.com

Now, I learn without anxiety. That is, my learning is what is left when you remove anxiety. And so I have https://learning-anxiety.com

There’s even a visual element to it that I enjoyed. My “brand” is not perfect anymore. It’s scarred. I’ve made mistakes, and I can prove it. There’s a dash in my domain, because the original version is dead. It’s never coming back.

I have https://learning-anxiety.com. We’re moving ahead. The dash will be a permanent reminder of the mistakes I must not repeat and also of the progress I’ve made. No use dwelling on the past. As Coco Chanel said, “Prenez mes idées. J’en aurai d’autres…”

Don’t forget: To learn is to change.

And what’s more, as a wise woman told me yesterday at CISO Open Mic, to change is to learn.

(Here’s what I said on that day, by the way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0dfnIhkHys, French version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4nuvtzbbTM)