
There are no projects like side projects - stared
http://crastina.se/theres-no-projects-like-side-projects/
======
bluedino
>> John Carmack and John Romero had a lot of freedom in their work at a
company. Yet, they decided to moonlight on their

>> own projects (working all weekends without sleep, on a “borrowed” computer
equipment) to accomplish their goals

Which didn't work out well for Softdisk, their employer. Since they were
employed as developers, they were obligated to offer the technology (2D EGA
side-scroller for Commander Keen), but Softdisk turned them down since they
still wanted to do CGA games. Off then went to form ID, and you know the story
from there.

Also similar to how Woz had to get HP to sign off on the Apple I. They didn't
want anything to do with it as they saw the original Apple computer as a toy
device, which freed Woz to go start a computer company with Steve Jobs...

~~~
hvs
I'm not super familiar with the ID story (I haven't read the book), but that
seems awfully simplistic. Certainly many companies have been short-sighted and
missed opportunities (your second example is one of the most obvious ones,
although HP may have just screwed that up), but a game company not wanting to
use newer technology for games doesn't jive with my understanding of the game
industry at any point (and I've been programming since the early 80's.)

That said, you might be right, it just seems weird.

~~~
bluedino
>> I'm not super familiar with the ID story (I haven't read the book), but
that seems awfully simplistic.

Softdisk (SoftDisk?) was a company who sold subscriptions similar to companies
like MicroZine. Each month or two you'd receive a disk in the mail with games,
utilities, and other software. The ID guys had recently moved from writing
Apple ][ software to the IBM PC.

When they did a demo called 'Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringement', which
consisted of a clone of the first level of the NES game Super Mario 3, they
sent it off to Nintendo, who of course responded that they weren't interested
in doing PC games. ID ended up partnering with Apogee to do their sales and
distribution, when SoftDisk found out, the guys ended up having to do a
handful more games for SoftDisk.

To make it even worse, they took their PC's home on the nights and weekends
from their desks at SoftDisk!

~~~
th0ma5
Softdisk created a lot of stuff for the IBM Big Blue Disk, a software magazine
like you mention. I've scoured the web, and am now polluting Google even
further perhaps with this comment, but I'd love to find some of that old
stuff. Lots of great memories from those demos.

------
k__
I often think, it would be cool to have a 50% job as developer. I would make
enough money to live and had plenty of time to do what I want.

But somehow those 50% jobs are only available in industries where 50% don't
pay for a living...

I tried it with freelancing once, but I felt the overhead eradicated the
benefits :\

~~~
stared
(Author here.) It's a thing I am trying to do right now: 50% for data science
freelancing (which I enjoy a lot nonetheless), and 50% for my own musings and
self-development, without any restrictions (whether technical, scientific or
educational).

It's clearly better financially than academic jobs _and_ I am not restricted
by grant topics & timelines or a place.

I am just curious what can go wrong? (I.e. I don't know personally anyone
living this way.)

~~~
ZachS
The biggest dangers are going to be non-paying clients, and leads drying up.
If you can't find any leads, you'll end up spending all your "self time" eaten
up with business development.

~~~
zackmorris
Thank you for clarifying something I've been struggling with for years. I have
a couple hundred project ideas and inventions written down but always have
this sense that I can't work on them because they are seemingly not the best
use of my time. Instead, I spend nearly the entirety of my time either
immersed in the logistics of wrapping up a contract, or working to find
another.

If someone could solve the business development end of freelancing, that would
be more valuable to me than matchmaking. The work was never the problem for
me, but the angst surrounding it.

~~~
mooreds
Tools like [https://freelanceinbox.com/](https://freelanceinbox.com/) and
10xmanagement.com are trying to solve the leadgen problem for developers.
Haven't used them, but might be worth a look.

------
gpcz
This phenomenon is a symptom of the Relevance Paradox [1]: people trying to
solve a problem try to minimize how much information they get (seeing most of
it as irrelevant), when a seemingly-inconsequential piece of information may
be the solution. It's also a major factor of Hierarchical Incompetence [2] and
part of why one really needs to think about the costs and benefits of
establishing a hierarchy to achieve a goal. Hierarchies can be efficient for
solving some problems and devastating for others.

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relevance_Paradox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relevance_Paradox)

[2]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchical_incompetence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchical_incompetence)

~~~
stared
It's true that certain top-down structures are great at coordination and
increasing efficiency for small changes, but at the same time are creativity
killers (because ideas need to go past a few layers, because most new things
are not beneficial from the first second thus can be "optimized" by
elimination).

Or putting things in a different way - we need "noise" to get further of a
local optimum, so we can explore more distant (and perhaps: better) optima.

------
johnwards
The benefits of side projects can also be demonstrated by "in company" side
projects I guess? 20% time etc. (gmail, post-it notes)

I'm trying to attempt to introduce 20% time in my department, trying to
convince the management that it is worthwhile is going to be hard I think.

Some of the benefits I can see, learning for staff, fulfilment for staff both
of which aid retention, and potential products or product improvements that
would otherwise not see the light of day.

Anyone got any suggestions of ways of introducing 20% time, other than listing
benefits and crossing fingers?

------
beenpoor
I agree w/ the premise. However, for those working for big corps, don't the
company have a legal right to go after employer's side projects (IP laws etc).
Wonder how feasible it would be to produce worthwhile projects while working
fulltime for an employer

