

Ask HN: How to start a side project? - rukshn

Hi<p>I&#x27;m thinking of starting a side 
Project of my own parallel to my day to day work.<p>Basically it&#x27;s a job board because I recently looked for a job and almost all the boards are old and bad in user experience. So I thought of starting something that is much more user friendly and can access though mobile. Never think it will be anything big but just wanted to start it.<p>What are your advices on starting out a small side project from your previous experiences?
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baobaba
The best way to start a side project is to pick a tiny one to begin with.
Think if you can do something in a weekend. It is important to train your
brain into believing you are a doer and a finisher. In my experience, the
worst thing you can do is dream up a huge scope, spend months building the
project, lose momentum and motivation, get angry with yourself, and generally
become miserable. I have been there, and it is not fun at all. Consider
challenging yourself to come up with the tiniest fun idea to build in a few
days. For inspiration, try producthunt.com. Good luck!

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kowdermeister
The first and most important thing is not to be this guy:
[http://www.commitstrip.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/11/Strip-...](http://www.commitstrip.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/11/Strip-Side-project-650-finalenglish.jpg)

Pick an idea that interests you very much and push it until you release it.
Resist the temptation to refactor it, just because a new exciting framework
has been released.

Also, google search with this exact phrase you posted here. There are tons of
blog posts about it out there.

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rukshn
The only idea that is holding me back is that my idea will fail and no matter
how better it is people will never use it. So my whole effort will go in vein.
Because according to some people I asked no matter how better it will be
people will never use it because they are so attached to the older ones

~~~
kowdermeister
This seems to disagree with you just wrote originally:

> Never think it will be anything big but just wanted to start it.

Don't care about failure. Do it for fun and for the sake of learning. Release
often and ask feedback, you have nothing to lose with a side project. Your
living is not determined by it so if you wanted to you could start in an hour.

> people will never use it because they are so attached to the older ones

I'm not sure what you are planning, but ignore the naysayers, just build
something, show it to people, and iterate. You are not limited by investors,
coworkers or anybody. If it's a side project, just do it. Maybe it will land
you a better job paying 2x. You can never know if you don't try.

~~~
rukshn
Yah I know but just that I have not started something for myself makes me
always think backwards. I've mostly developed stuff for other people

~~~
kowdermeister
Then start small. Scale back your idea, pick a weekend project that you can
finish in 48 hours. Make it open source, put it on GitHub. You will see the
gratification when people will interact with it. After this you can go a
little higher, more ambitious ideas.

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ThomPete
I started [http://www.ghostnoteapp.com](http://www.ghostnoteapp.com) as a side
project. It's still a side project but it's also a good business for me.

The most important things to consider when doing them is to subdividing it
into smaller and smaller projects. That way you will feel the progress and
that will help you want to prioritize your project. You need to start with a
smaller idea than you might think. Really shave it down to barely working.

Thats at least what worked best for me.

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fsk
1\. Find some time every week or every day to work on it.

2\. Open an editor and start doing it.

3\. Break it up into small chunks so you can feel like you're making progress.

Also, pick something better than a job board. (Unless you're really sure
that's what you want to do.) There already are too many people trying to make
a better job website.

One thing that helped me, surprisingly, was having a couple of side projects.
That made it easier for me to switch around when I got bored with one.

~~~
wkcamp
I think the real focus of a side project should not be the idea, but rather
the learning experience that comes with that idea. That being said, a dynamic
job board that pulls from many websites could be a fantastic way of improving
one's familiarity with web crawlers and such.

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pollilop
I think the best way is to start doing something. You should`t wait till
something happen. Just be doer not thinker!

The more you think then less time you have to do smth

