I've got a list of side projects to get on with. I've made little progress in the last year, and suspect its burn out to blame - I'm just constantly exhausted.
I think if you have the energy, this is awesome fun. It might even get to the point where one of them makes some decent income.
But if you don't, like me, just realise that there is a reason for that, and it's OK. You need rest and relaxation, and it's OK to prioritise that.
I used to think my youthful energy was gone forever. Then about 3 months ago I had an idea for a project I truly believed in. I was able to write code for 16 hours straight, day after day, for most of the last 3 months. And it's not exhausting, it's rejuvenating. I feel like a young man again, despite my gray hairs! (I was planning on releasing it today actually, but this weekend I had an epiphany that requires a half rewrite for significant gains, which might add another few weeks.)
Here's what I'm working on, right now[0]. It's a major rewrite of an existing app, that's been submitted to the App Store, and will probably go "live" in a day or so (unless someone at Apple has an issue with it, which happens, from time to time. Annoying, but not the end of the world). I'm working on the README and code documentation, now (I'll put together a docc catalog, as well as a Jazzy Docs site, and the supporting pages[1]).
[0] https://github.com/RiftValleySoftware/ambiamara (Just a timer app, but a pretty good one).
What do you think made it something you could believe in? Was it the opportunity, that it aligned with something you were personally interested in or something else?
I had a project a few years ago that was a bit like that. I'd be coding it up every hour I could find around the day job, and loved it. Perhaps I need to reflect on that some more.
I think you're onto something here. I find that as I'm aging I'm not losing energy anywhere near as fast as I'm losing the belief necessary for commitment.
I miss walking out of Borders with a PHP book dreaming of the websites I would build, or walking out of Best Buy with a iPad, imagining new games to create.
I do sometimes feel like, if I'd spent 25% of the time I spent on these side projects on something that would have made me $$$$$$$$ then maybe I could now spend all my time on anything I want, or live in a nicer place and that sometimes dissuades me from some new side projects.
I think probably the biggest thing that gets me to start something is if I believe (even wrongly) that I can make tons of progress quickly. Usually that means I think I can get to something working in a few hours.
A focus on revenue or external validation is what turns a "side project" into a "side hustle" or just a plain old "business" and those tend to be a lot less fun to work on.
You will be less productive than getting into a focus state off line. But 0.5x is still infinitely higher than zero.
On stream, you don’t get to randomly hop into a game or doom scroll social media or hackernews.
[Comedy take: I blame you for my projects not being done too! :) Bada-tish!]
Seriously though, guilt, blame, shame all that stuff: it's not helpful. It just compounds the feelings that make it hard to get started again because those feelings are emotionally draining.
What I'm trying to get myself into the habit of is a 5-minute dip into something. If I just say to myself when I'm feeling slightly exhausted "I just need to put 5 minutes into this next task, and then I'll stop", I frequently find myself spending 30+ minutes on it. I can then feel a sense of over-meeting my "goal". That builds a little momentum, it makes you feel good about getting something done.
I also have reminded myself of the advice I gave others when younger: don't underestimate rest - particularly sleep, but also generally doing nothing - as being part of getting stuff done.
I don't do this well at all at the moment, hence my comment you're replying to, but I absolutely 100% will not let blaming myself get into my head like that, and that does help a little with the 5-minute trick.
I could, in theory, spend six months writing Uber for dogs. But why would I? That hardly feels worth it. Or I could try to implement AF_ONION in the Linux kernel. Also doesn't really feel motivating. Or (let me check the list) port libsodium to WUFFS. Write a framework for interactive tablet applications (at least on the pinetab2). Try to compile something by telling an LLM to pretend it's gcc, just for laughs. Set up an IRC botnet (the legal kind). Write an SSH honeypot. Set up an MQTT server so I can log my own location via an app on F-Droid. All stuff that seems slightly interesting but not enough to actually do it. And what seems interesting enough to focus on it for a few months to the exclusion of all other possibilities? Nothing at all.
Just today I wanted to post a link to a meme in IRC, but all the Google results were on garbage sites like Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and Imgur. I could go build a meme hosting site where you just have direct links to images. Maybe it would even be the best one. That's how Imgur got started. Still doesn't feel worth doing.
But it would be so huge I can’t afford the hosting bill.
1. just start anything NOW. Don't worry about getting organized or the correct order; just go. The act of working creates momentum; early on moving is more important than progress.
2. today's good enough > tomorrow's perfect. I found an OSS project for something I was going to build to help me capture "personal content". It's rough and not exactly what I was after but good enough. I've built (less than) half a system to help me with my job on top of PocketBase. Maybe someday I'll finish it (or even add another feature - #1 above has lots of ideas captured!) but until then I get value today.
3. Find something that has ongoing personal value: I help an animal rescue and pay the ongoing costs to run the system I built more than 10 years ago. Dropping $20/month to $5/month is possible but not a big enough motivation for a significant new version. The looming tech debt and support load might be over the rest of this year though!
4. Recognize that the incomplete part of side projects is a feature not a bug. Curiosity and exploration almost always end in specific dead ends, but the illumination gained can be used throughout your life. It's largely the act not the explicit output.
Yes! Projects develop organically, with many stop gap solutions and temporary scaffolds built and torn down along the way. Rome wasn't built in a day.
SideProjectCemerary ?
You upload your side projects’ data/github/seni-working-prototype, it performs a very quick ritualistic ceremony/blessing and buries it in a little marked grave.
Visitors are free to go grave robbing if they wish.
I too struggled with the feeling of not completing things, until I realized I didn't actually want to "finish" projects in the sense of "have paying users" but instead wanted to learn something new, try out some design/architecture or just solve a personal problem.
So for the last few years, my "finished" ratio is much higher, as I got the value I wanted out of almost every project I started.
I don't see this as a bad thing. Most people make side projects for fun, trying knew things, solidifying knowledge, etc.
I mean, if you have a goal of starting a SaaS and you've spent years starting and stopping a bunch of projects that you never follow through on then yeah, you should improve on that. But that's not most people with a bunch of unfinished side projects.
I actually love this part of github; it reminds me of the old internet, full of under construction Geocities pages and other half-baked projects. It's the polar opposite of today's bland, instagram-perfect same-same internet.
Maybe it was some SEO related sale with the domain and bit of ad revenue that someone bought for $100, which probably isn't the definition of selling a side project that most users on HN have. In fact, looking at the domains, the domains were probably worth more than the content on those sites.
That's why I originally flagged this post because I thought it was a bit misleading. I didn't think most people here would consider simple lists of things as side projects.
Still… it’s a pretty fun list!
I finally have four ideas that I think worthy to build that I would like to monetize. All would be well within my abilities to build. No vision of grandeur that I'd retire from any of them and if I made $100 from one site I'd be ecstatic.
Two are simple games, one a directory and one a utility type site. No AI, no sign-up, no affiliate marketing, no upselling, just simple sites with ads.
However, my "paralysis by analysis" affliction is strong.
The solution is to remember that nothing is perfect, and that all code is eventually thrown away and replaced. So just start writing code and have fun!
I always thought perfectionism was someone who was productive but way too hard on themselves, overworking to achieve some end that's just not worth it. Not necessarily - it can also mean DOING NOTHING because you dont see a way to do it perfectly.
This has helped me a lot with writing. Sometimes you just have to write down incoherent slop. Let the ideas flow and be content with knowing they will have to be revised later. By all means if you write with more purpose and structure without getting too bogged down to continue then do so.
To me, trying to make money with random projects is the most motivating thing. A dollar earned from some little project is emotionally to me worth many times that of the same dollar I'd earn as salary (as long as I don't starve). Most of my friends do not seem to share this feeling.
Also the internet is very big. You can sometimes have success with something, even it's a very silly badly implemented little thing. What people like, how you happen to get traffic, it's all quite unpredictable.
However, I have difficulty in doing a personal site just for my own benefit and pleasure.
I enjoy learning, I enjoy the THOUGHT of building and doing but my execution sucks.
I'd think it's something that gets traction in the media every so often. That can lead to a spikes in traffic that you can potentially monetize. It's a basic site so it wouldn't take much to maintain. So, I guess there's value.
I'd argue there is some kind of magic here.
Right now, I just have my blog + github as a messy portfolio of personal projects, but I like this much better.
I created it 17~ years ago mostly as just a tool for myself and now it gets roughly 8 million views a month.
The hardest part of any side project is actually launching it and making it somewhat production ready. I always spend the vast majority of my time dealing with devops/deployment issues/tasks
I too have noticed that these Cooper Black variants with a kinda 60s/70s retro style have become incredibly popular.
How do you deal with updates? I.e. how do you decide whether to maintain a product or move it to "dead"?
