
Why you should have a side project - guillaumec
https://erickhun.com/posts/why-you-should-have-a-side-project/
======
rb808
I really think with a proper full time job working long hours its unrealistic
to spend much time on any side project. Its much healthier to try to spend
time with friends and family, or hobbies. If you have young children there is
little chance.

What everyone should strive for is the side project at work. Making new tools,
monitoring systems, refactoring some library, user friendly applications,
experimenting with new languages. Google is famous for the 20% project, but
most people can get away with spending a few hours a week on whatever they
want while working. If you deliver something useful its also a good way of
getting recognition.

~~~
whack
> _I really think with a proper full time job working long hours its
> unrealistic to spend much time on any side project. Its much healthier to
> try to spend time with friends and family, or hobbies. If you have young
> children there is little chance._

I hear this comment every time this topic comes up, and quite honestly, it is
BS. If you're in the minority of people who are spending every waking hour
productively, maybe this is true. But for the majority, it certainly isn't. I
know plenty of people who spend >10-20 hours every week on:

\- Watching TV

\- Surfing the web

\- Playing games

\- Watching sports

\- Going camping/hiking etc

\- Weekend trips

\- Fishing

\- etc etc etc

When someone suggests hiking, reading and meditation as a good way to spend
your free time, everyone nods along and talks about how wonderful it is. But
when someone talks about building a side-project, suddenly everyone has twin
babies and elderly parents with dementia who are taking up every waking
minute.

There's nothing wrong with any of the other alternatives listed above. If
you're burnt out from coding, go ahead and do whatever gives you happiness and
satisfaction. But please acknowledge that building side-projects is eminently
realistic, and for some people, will give far more happiness and satisfaction
than binging netflix.

~~~
blub
Building a side project is work, spending time with family, camping, going on
trips isn't.

It's not so much that we can't accept that some people enjoy working, it's
that they're screwing their health. There is no free lunch, staring at
monitors for years on end will take its toll.

Gaming and watching TV aren't healthy for computer workers either.

~~~
greggman2
I hate this attitude. It's the same attitude that anything that happens on a
computer is work because someone uses a computer at work. I also use chairs
and desks and toilets at work and I eat food at work and talk to people at
work and walk to diffenent places at work so I guess walking, sitting, talking
to people, pooping etc all all work.

No, rather a computer is a general purpose device on which I can make music,
listen to music, edit video, watch moives, learn a new language, look up
recipies, talk to friends, chat with experts on all kinds of topics. I don't
stop using the computer "because I use it at work"

The same is true of programming and side progects. Programming is not work.
Programming is something I do at work like I alos talk to people at work, sit
at work, walk at work, eat at work, write emails at work, chat at work.

Programming is also a fun activity in and of itself I get lots of enjoyment
out of just like I get enjoyment from those other things. That fact that I do
it at work as ZERO influence on my enjoyment of it. I might not enjoy certain
things I do at work but that has nothing to do with "programming" and
everything to do with goals or don't believe in or busy work for the sake of
busy work or having to do things someway I don't agree with, all of which
disappear on my own stuff.

~~~
dorkwood
If I came home from band practice and spent all night writing music and
playing my guitar, people would say "wow, that guy is so passionate and
creative". But since my craft involves a computer, they instead say "you're
going to burn yourself out. You should get a different hobby."

The computer is a tool. It's the tool that I use to create things, and that
creativity gives me life. I don't think people without creative hobbies can
really understand this.

~~~
didibus
Band practice isn't equivalent to music work. It would be more like being on
tour, and coming home to play some more. Which I doubt musicians do. Most I've
heard find touring pretty taxing.

From my musician friends too, I seldom see them ever spending more than 8
hours a day doing music. As music work isn't really 9 to 5 style.

Here we're talking having done an 8 to 10 hour day programming, Monday through
Friday, and then spending even more once home and on weekends.

Now, I happen to be, maybe as you are, someone who is passionate about CS. So
I do actually do it as a hobby and as work. I just don't believe everyone
should, and I don't want to make it the norm that you have too, because if
that was the case, my doing it as a hobby for myself would now become me doing
it cause I have too for employability.

It's also not my only hobby, I found that when it was, it did in fact slowly
overwork my mind. I'd slowly start sleeping later, waking earlier, having
issues falling asleep because I'd always be thinking about my problems. A few
hours before bed, switching to a non thinking hobby has been really nice for
me.

I agree with you about the stigma though. I think if anything, I'd like to
encourage non-programmers to pick up programming as a hobby. It's a great
creative outlet, and the computer is a tool. It can be very rewarding and so
much fun. Plus, for many, it could translate into a better career for them.

As a programmer though, I think it's just up to you, but definitely you
shouldn't have too.

Just my opinion.

------
mumblemumble
So, assuming you're early career, I get the idea that you are anxious about
your CV and your job security, and you want to build up something of a
portfolio that you can show publicly.

Me, I'm mid career, and wish I hadn't focused so much on doing more
programming in my off time. Most of the side projects I worked on never really
came to any sort of long-term fruition, and I'm not even sure that they were
_that_ helpful in my career. What really helped was being able to demonstrate
domain expertise, and I built that up by becoming _less_ focused on
programming, and spending more of my work time just talking to people and
understanding their business.

There are two big problems with just working on raw programming skills: First,
if all you are is a programmer, then you're fungible. The only programming
skills that aren't particularly fungible are skills in entrenched-but-uncool
languages like COBOL and RPG. The cools ones are cheap; anyone who can stick
to a MOOC can build up a portfolio of side projects on popular technologies.
On the other hand, domain expertise is very difficult to replace. The
resources to build it up typically aren't publicly available, so they're less
common.

And there are plenty of side projects you can work on that give your brain a
break, or at least a change of pace, while still looking good on your CV and
opening up job opportunities you might not otherwise have. Lately, for me,
it's been learning languages. It's a lot easier to fit into a life, because
you can do it while commuting or doing housework. Having a business
proficiency can definitely open doors. And, once you get past the beginner
stage (which is best undertaken as a solitary pursuit), it's a _great_ social
activity.

~~~
lucideer
This is great advice _if_ you are early career and anxious about your CV and
job security. I don't believe side-project-as-portfolio is the ideal strategy
for career building for _most_ people (though it may be for some).

However...

> _you 're early career, I get the idea that you are anxious about your CV and
> your job security_

From reading the article, I didn't get this impression about the author at
all. I strongly got the impression that the author is mid-career, and that
they feel their career has benefitted from side-projects (I still don't
necessarily believe this will be the case for most people, but certainly can
for some).

What about the article gave you that impression?

Side note: I think outside of career progression, side-projects have many
ancillary benefits and are very worthwhile.

~~~
eric_khun
Thanks, lucideer. OP here. You're correct! I believe that who want to have
more opportunities early in their career will benefit from a side project. It
can only add value.

And I also agree with mumblemumble, that later on, you might want to focus on
some specific skills and make better what you already knows to sell yourself
as a specialist, and that's where you can make $$$?

just my 2 cents

------
chooseaname
I don't have side projects. I don't really want one. What I do is satisfy my
intellectual curiosity. I've always been very curious how things work. If I
see an app with a widget that does something, I will (try to) recreate it.
I'll then move on to the next curiosity. I like protocols, so maybe I'll
implement a minimalist IRC server. Then move on. I don't fully flesh out these
applications. I do the minimum I need to understand and learn and satisfy
myself and then move on. I am curious about so many things, I don't have time
to have a side project.

Another thing is, I love reading code, so if I see an Open Source project that
does something really interesting, I'll read the code. If there's a
particularly tricky piece of code, I'll print it out, grab a sharp pencil and
go sit on the back porch to trace through it and understand it.

I don't do side projects. I don't have a github account. But I do code a lot.
And I do read a lot of code.

~~~
robohoe
Would satisfying one's curiosity count as an extracurricular activity on a CV?
For example, I love learning about how airplanes work. I spent this weekend
reading about Boeing 737 bleed air systems and how they power many things on a
jetliner. Sure it's not code, but something interesting.

~~~
non-entity
I don't think so, unfortunately. I think that that sort of thing says
something (positive) about a person that the traditional hiring pipeline
misses.

------
sloopy543
Well first of all, we need to abandon the concept of the 40 hour work week.
Very few people are actually working all of those 40 hours and even if they
were, it's just a bad way to work for any client or company.

In all likelihood, the people managing you aren't technical and have a very
small window into the work you're actually doing. On top of that, even if you
can outperform your colleagues by as much as 200% by working more or working
"harder", there's no point in doing so because our work world doesn't really
understand how to deal with exceptional individuals. You'll just get 15% more
pay and some meaningless title for all of that hard work anyway.

So you work up to the point where people tell you "that's amazing", then you
go work on side projects. Simple customer management. They're happy, you're
happy. No more exchanging hours for dollars, we all get what we want.

Just focus on what matters, both for your own longterm happiness (building
skills, scratching an itch, whatever) and for the happiness of your customers
(they won't get their project completed if you're burned out and disengaged).

Reject the 40 hours. This isn't a factory and we aren't slaves. It will all be
fine.

~~~
quickthrower2
I agree! But shame we have contracts that say stuff like work you do at work
is the property of the company, and you need to be at work for 40 hours per
week. I'm sure individuals on HN do negotiate, and working remote gives you
this freedom probably, but for most of us it doesn't seem realistic.

~~~
sloopy543
My only advice is to get your finances together and have a giant ball of "FU"
money so you can afford to quit situations where you're wasting your time.
Software engineers have the luxury of making large sums of money, so it
shouldn't take too long to get a few hundred K together. Things start to look
much more rosy after that.

Just remember to think like a business person. They're doing that. Why not
you?

~~~
quickthrower2
Saving "A few 100k" is one solution, probably for the American FAANG (or
equivalent) engineers. But there are other solutions.

Frugality helps - less money is required if you live in a shared house or a
couch (you can invest in property at the same time but not live in it).

Having a life partner helps, one of you can have a job at all times, so one of
you has the FU card.

Other sources of income. I think coding side projects are hard to make work,
but real estate is more doable (but there is more risk and patience required).

Even with none of that, a good CV, interviewing technique, keeping up with the
interview puzzles, and living somewhere with plenty of jobs will give you a FU
card to your current company (but not the industry).

~~~
sloopy543
Oh for sure! There are so many different FU cards, money being the obvious one

------
nikanj
No.

Your free time should be about rest and recovery, not about grinding out even
more code.

Even if it looks bad on your CV

~~~
chrisseaton
Why are some people so strongly opposed to others using their free time to
better themselves and stretch their minds a bit?

Many of humanities greatest scientific discoveries and works of art were 'side
projects'.

It's better than lounging around like a lemon doing nothing with your time.

~~~
crdoconnor
I've noticed a strong negative reaction from some people who have kids.
There's a weird kind of expectation from some that because they don't have
time to work on side projects (which is fair; kids suck up time like nothing
else), that others who don't have kids and do have the time shouldn't be able
to derive any kind of professional advantage over them from it.

~~~
forbiddenvoid
There's more to it than that. It's not just about a professional advantage -
it's about company cultures that are toxic toward people with families.

This quote for example: 'I’ve asked David Wong, working in the cryptocurrency
team at Facebook, what would be the best way to be noticed by Facebook? He
answered: “Side Projects” and “Blog”.'

To many people with kids, that reads: Facebook doesn't want to hire engineers
with families, because the things they care about from folks are diametrically
opposed, in many cases, to the time required with children.

I absolutely think that if you have the time and flexibility you should use
it. But there are (and should be) other ways to stand out to companies or to
create value that don't involve side gigs outside of the normal work day.

~~~
crdoconnor
I feel like there's an element of wanting to have and eat ones cake here.
Programming isn't so different to playing a music instrument - you become
better through a lot of deliberate, sustained practice. like it or not, people
who have the time and inclination can jump ahead of others in competence the
same way a musician who practices 8 hours a day can.

It's not particularly compatible with having kids, but it makes you a better
musician.

I'm all in favour of finding better ways to let programmers who don't have
side projects stand out but I don't think that devaluing side projects is the
way to do that.

------
5trokerac3
If you've never done a side project, I would definitely recommend the
experience. That being said, the people I know who always have to have
something software and/or business related on the side are stretched thinner
than anyone else I know.

I've gotten the most mileage out of the extracurricular pursuits that have the
least to do with programming - usually those around art or sports. When I have
an interesting idea for a technical side project I pursue it, but when I was
in a phase where I felt obligated to do so, it brought more stress than
enjoyment.

------
mibzman
Alright, I have __many __thoughts on this.

In summary, this article says: "I like side projects! I have done a bunch of
them, and here are the reasons why you should do them too:

1\. You can make money

2\. They're a gateway drug to entrepreneurship

3\. You can learn new skills, including business skills

4\. They look good on a resume/when networking

5\. You can learn about yourself

6\. Work with friends/make new ones”

I don’t think there is anything _wrong_ with this article, but I think it
misses the mark a bit.

In my experience there are 3 reasons to work on a side project:

1\. Learning- picking up a specific skill you didn’t have before.

2\. Experience- doing more programming in total (making you more experienced).

3\. Fun- sometimes programming is a fun thing to do!

I think if you don’t really hit at least one of those, you shouldn’t be doing
side projects. On some days I take the even stronger position that unless you
are trying to make a career change __or __you really find programming fun, you
should not be doing side projects.

Making money can be part of it, but as the author says it can't really be the
driving force of a _side project_. If making money is your goal, I would argue
that that isn't a side project, it's a small business and should be treated as
such.

It’s also worth thinking about what value you get out of which parts of side
projects. You can hit all those goals _without_ actually finishing and
releasing your project. I see a lot of devs not bother starting projects when
they hit all 3 reasons, because they don’t want to polish their project into a
full product.

I don’t want to go off too much here, I blog at length about side projects at
[https://weeklyproject.club](https://weeklyproject.club) , and I wrote an
article recently about this phenomenon at
[https://weeklyproject.club/articles/finish/](https://weeklyproject.club/articles/finish/)

------
art4ur
I've never understood the grind culture. When I'm not at work there are a
millions things I'd rather do than more work. I know some people who are
always working. I can't. I need down time.

------
algodaily
I somewhat agree. I've written about this before, but working on AlgoDaily[1]
has helped me develop an amazing amount as a software engineer and
entrepreneur. I've gotten to work with tech that I don't get to play with at
work, learned what really makes a business tick, and have been able to network
with many amazing people.

At the same time, there's been days that I've had to step back and reflect on
the time spent in front of a computer, when I could've been traveling or
partying like many peers.

It also can be a ton of work on top of your regular job.

[1] [https://algodaily.com/lessons/getting-your-first-software-
jo...](https://algodaily.com/lessons/getting-your-first-software-job-without-
professional-experience#get-experience-via-your-own-projects)

~~~
jpamata
Hey, about algodaily, when are you guys planning to add Java?

------
lagadu
I already spend 7 to 8 hours a day working on software, the odds that I'll
spend a single minute working on anything remotely close to that are close to
0: I have significantly more enjoyable stuff to occupy my time with.

Sure, I find my work to be interesting and engaging but there are extremely
few activities that I enjoy doing for over 8 hours.

------
tech_dreamer
I had been been working for 18 hours a day (for a duration of 1 month) - this
is what happened to me.

1\. Woke up at 4 am - 15 minutes - planning and thinking about the schedule
for the rest of the day.

2\. Review the code I wrote previous day (30 mins)(though I was the only one
developing this I do PRs :)(iOS mobile app - swift for front end, golang for
microflow, docker, k8s and google cloud)

3\. Refactor and add features for the next 2 hours.

4.Glance through NYTimes(liberal left), Fox(republic) RT, South China Morning
Post, Global Times(CN), Economic Times(IN) and DW(EU) to understand where
world stands.

5 Get ready for office (train 30 mins) - attend the standup - provide and
listen updates - fix issues , develop features - (NodeJS & Java)

5\. Thankfully all the office meetings - are scheduled only on Mondays.

6\. 5:30 leave office, get into train and reach home at 7:20 pm (walk from
train station to home - 2 km approx. - and take a shower

7\. Play with kids, read stories (and fight with wife :))

8\. Family prayer and got to bed.

9\. On Fridays - have a beer or a glass of wine after prayer.

10\. Saturday & Sunday - take children for extra curricular activities,
shopping (mostly groceries and house hold items.

After one month - I couldn't carry on with waking up at 4:00 am - couldn't
concentrate at work - getting irritated easily etc. I switched to waking up at
6:00 am.

Side projects are possible - but there is a cost :)

------
hugg
More like, "Why I feel like I should have a side project"

------
rm_-rf_slash
Is anyone else working full time and getting a degree part time? I’m a year
away from my masters and it’s just been grueling, especially given that the
government sees no difference in terms of taxes whether my tuition is paid
directly by my employer or if they just gave me a $20,000 check every year and
I ran it straight to the bursar _on my own accord_ , so I’ve been screwed for
money _and_ time for it seems like as long as I can remember.

I really want to do side projects (I’m getting a degree in machine learning
and google colab is free) but I have a job to go to, classwork to do, tests to
study for, groceries to shop for and dinner to cook because I can’t afford
instacart or delivery...and then I read posts like this about the joys of side
projects. It’s really depressing.

~~~
pickle-wizard
I've been considering getting a masters. The thing holding me back, is that I
worked full time while getting my bachelors and it was a grueling 9 years. I'm
not sure I want to go through that again. Though I do dream of quitting my job
and going back to school full time. I think that would be fun. I have the
money to do it, but the opportunity cost is just too high.

Though I do spend a couple of hours most weekday mornings learning stuff I
want to learn. I get up about 5 spend a couple of hours studying and then head
into work. The nice thing about studying on my own, is that I can take a break
if I need to. Like right now work is real stressful, so I decided to take a
week off studying.

~~~
rm_-rf_slash
Taking classes full time was much easier. Even with the mental whiplash of
subjects and classwork to do, I at least had the freedom to figure out the
best way to work my schedule around it. Not so easy when I have to be at my
desk at 8am every day.

------
codingdave
I agree with some of the points from the article, but I also agree with the
people saying to spend your free time with your family and on your hobbies.

So I have always had side projects that combine them. I'll write tools that
help my family do something together. It used to be mapping tools to help us
plan outdoor exploring in the mountains and deserts. Then it was conversion
programs to turn photos into craft patterns. Most of those are offline now,
too, I just left up a basic cross-stitch one. I turned the others off for the
same reason I stopped the mapping tools -- similar tools were popping up
everywhere, so I stopped putting my time into it. Now my kids are getting into
writing, and I am working on a writing tool that can help them organize their
thoughts... which will probably get seen and copied into more robust tools,
and then I can turn it off.

These projects always go the same way -- they are something cool to help my
family, they let me practice new things, I learn more, and some day people
with more time surpass my idea with a real product.

I really have no problem with this cycle. It seems like everyone involved gets
something out of it. And I'm way too old to play the game of every new idea
having to have a goal of becoming a startup.

------
melvinroest
I'm currently full-time on my side project as I'm done with graduating, tired
from searching for the right job (it has been months) and I just need to do
some actual coding, to get it out my system or something.

It is a code vacation, because when job hunting, I'm not coding that much.

I'll try to be brief:

1\. I am passionate about digital creation again

What I find really cool is that learning to program has been worth it. It has
taken one bachelor and 2 masters, but it has been worth it. Studying computer
science has been worth it. I'm capable of deep diving if I have to, and
otherwise just stay on a web stack flying on a high level zipping code
together by gluing npm packages but creating my own ones if I have to.

2\. Passion has downsides

I'm seeing my friends less, I'm seeing my girlfriend less. I feel that
everyone around me tolerates my behavior, but I don't suspect they like it too
much as I'm thinking 24/7 about this thing. It also makes me a bit mentally
absent when I'm with them. The issue is, I can't help it. IMO, it's a good
lesson on how passion is overrated as the downsides of pure passion are not
being discussed. My sleep (and code quality) is terrible as I'm too excited to
get up again, and the problem is: I can sustain this a lot longer than I
thought I could.

3\. It allows me to do some much needed self exploration

Why do I like this? Why am I now procrastinating on creating the backend but
am neck deep in learning how to rearchitect the backend to a p2p architecture
(easy: because p2p web apps are more unusual ;-) ). I'm getting a lot of
questions and answers that I need.

4\. It feels like a game

I think the reason it feels like a game is because I have my own agency. I get
to decide to solve a problem that I think is worth solving for whatever
reason. That type of agency is quite common in games: you're in a big world
with tons of quests and you can decide what to do (even abandon the whole
quest line!).

\---

All in all: doing your own side project on a full-time basis is a much needed
and interesting exploration for me. For 9 years people told me what I should
do. It's interesting to see what I do when I tell myself what to do. It's a
much needed break from just doing what other people want.

------
asdkhadsj
On this note, I'm setting up an OSS side project (finally going public after a
year+ of internal revisions) for many of the reasons cited in this project.
It's something I care about.

With that said, part of my plan is to have a hosted version of the application
- at least until the moderation of content makes me regret it, hah. However, I
am concerned about the overhead of both writing and maintaining a complex FOSS
project, but also handling [dev]ops of the project.

I know enough ops to be dangerous, but not much beyond that. I also know
enough to know how little I know. Due to budget constraints, I will likely be
hosting this on a very low cost server and exploiting CDN caching/etc very,
very heavily - but I do imagine I'll need a cheap VPS. Ie, I don't think I can
exploit a fully managed Function as a Service architecture; I think I'll be
managing a VPS.

So for a low budget project with minimal ops experience, how can I ensure
security and safety? What path to growth can I walk, without consuming my time
trying to become an expert in [dev]ops?

------
non-entity
I've never been able to get into side projects, but I have recently taken up
contributing to open source projects. It was accidental, but I ended up making
my first ever real contribution to an open source project after patching a
driver to work with some hardware I was too lazy / cheap to replace. I'm in
the process of moving, but I think afterwards I'm going to ramp up my work
because that was the first time I generally enjoyed programming in years and
it could also have a good impact on my career. I don't have any real friends
or family right now so I have plenty of free time.

------
ThrowMeAwayOkay
I feel switching two words around in the article title brings things into
better focus:

Why Should You Have A Side Project?

Ask yourself:

\- What do you want out of this side project? Money? Fame? Learning?

\- How would you define success for this side project?

\- What will you do if it succeeds? (unlikely)

\- What will you do if it fails? (likely)

You need to chart a rough path. Creating something open source and aiming for
popularity and notoriety is much different than hoping to make enough money to
quit your day job from your side project. You end up in two vastly different
places if you succeed. If you fail, you end up in the same place. Plan and be
ok with both end results.

------
player_zero
Doing some side projects for a while. Nothing else made me happier and more
fulfilling then this. It makes you grow and challenge yourself and opens your
eyes to what you can do or be without your employer.

------
jpm_sd
Might as well title it "Why there should be more hours in the day"

------
ainar-g
A very much related article, which can even be considered a response to the
articles like OP of sorts, is “I Can't Do Anything for Fun Anymore”[1][2] by
Dave Bennett. I seriously recommend reading it.

[1] [https://www.bennettnotes.com/post/making-money-out-of-
every-...](https://www.bennettnotes.com/post/making-money-out-of-every-hobby/)

[2]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19727156](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19727156)

------
onion2k
If you read the "making money" numbers as how much you could make from a side
project, remember that the values appear to be _revenue_ and not profit.

------
FabioBertone
I have strong feelings about the "making money" reason.

As much as I do like 2-3,000 USD extra in my pocket every year, investing the
time directly into getting better skills and better-paid jobs trumps such
amounts even if you get just 1% more every year.

~~~
C1sc0cat
An extra £200 a month before tax -and how much effort doe that require.

------
dusted
You should ask yourself, does side project bring joy? If it does not, must go
out.

------
brudgers
[random internet advice]

Don't should on yourself.

Consider the source when should on .

------
einpoklum
Why you should have a side project? So you don't waste all your off-time
reading HackerNews comments, that's why...

------
rinchik
Ah all these comments.

I pity those who are in this industry only for money :(

It sounds so miserable not to get any joy from your profession . What side
project can we talk about if you can't wait to get out of the office, to run
away from the code to literally do ANYTHING except coding.

What creativity and progress can we talk about when we have a bunch of
miserable oompa loompas.

~~~
MS90
I get joy from coding and five years in, my programming job is far and away
the best job I've ever had and the most I've ever been paid.

That being said, I also realize that there's more to life than writing code. I
spend all day at work writing code. The last thing I want to do is go home and
write more code. There's an entire world out there that I won't see any of it
if I stay inside locked to my computer 24/7.

Why does everyone HAVE to have a side project?

~~~
rinchik
You are ok with your job but there is no passion. That’s what I’m talking
about.

You don’t have to have a side project.

Passion is so rare these days, isn’t it?

~~~
redisman
Passion fades. How long have you been professionally programming?

~~~
rinchik
Not too long (~9years), and getting used to the absence of passion.
Unfortunately. I disagree that passion (if you have one) fades in this
industry. There is so much going on! All the time! It touches every domain you
can think of! Passion here is rare, but it never fades, its not marriage. You
are free to create, and to explore, and to mentor, and to contribute! It’s
certainly never boring. And oh boy those passionate discussions, even
something as simple as tabs vs spaces, can be so much fun!

Picture marriage. But not an ordinary marriage, an extraordinary one! Imagine
marriage where you are married to all attractive men in the universe, and you
are free to experiment, and have full access to every single one of them!
That’s how software development works for me.

Eh, I should probably cut a bit on exclamation marks, but I can’t, I’m
passionate!

------
Zaheer
www.Levels.fyi started out as a side project! One benefit of starting out as a
side project is it allowed us the flexibility and freedom to focus on user
features without needing to worry about revenue.

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julee04
Wow I love the map on citymayor. What did you use to make it?

~~~
eric_khun
Thanks! it was done with mapbox :)

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stinos
I actually count much of my hobbies as 'side projects' as well even though
almost none of them include actual programming. It's something I do which
isn't work. And most of them do involve some other kind of skill and labour.
And also almost none of them get me any money, and that also usually isn't a
main motivator for me. tldr; I sort of agree with the general sentiment here,
but feel the article is written a bit too much from personal experience
without much more general reflection on the topic and focussing only on
programming and not treating other things as side project. Or maybe that's the
definition of side project, not sure :)

