
Side projects - DanielRibeiro
http://swombat.com/2012/11/6/side-projects
======
davidw
Time for Welton's Law of Advice: for every bit of trite advice, there's an
equal, and opposite bit of trite advice :-)

Although in this case, what it really comes down to is what you hope to
achieve. Some side projects are good as an outlet for creativity where you
_don't_ have any deadlines or things you want to accomplish or anything else.
Others are more focused. The important thing is to be clear about what you
want.

------
anujkk
I believe different people do side projects for different reasons and they
have different goals in their mind :

\- Some do it for side income.

\- Some do it to learn a new language/framework.

\- Some do it because it solves a particular problem they have.

\- Some do it to test their ideas.

\- Some do it to have some projects in their portfolio.

\- Some do it full time and call it a side project hoping it to be a
successful startup while playing safe calling it a side project.

Whatever may be the reason, whether it is a side project or a full time
project or a startup, the original goal is what matters the most. If the
project developer achieves his/her goal by doing this side project, it is
successful, else it is a failure with some addition to his experience and
knowledge.

~~~
d0ugal
I often do it just for the fun of solving a particular problem. The problem I
find is I loose motivation in finishing the boring bits when the fun stuff is
completed.

~~~
anujkk
I have experienced the same. There are two ways to look at it -

1\. You had fun (which was your goal) and probably you learned something new
which you can use in some other more serious projects. So, relax and let it be
incomplete. If possible, release it as open source so that someone else can
work on it.

2\. Find motivation in the fact that by completing it you can make something
that may be useful to someone else. You can also look it as an opportunity to
practice some self-discipline of completing things you take charge of. It is
hard to get in good habits and we should make efforts for it. After all
everything isn't fun and fun isn't everything.

Personally I have done both but I want to take the second path and I am making
an effort for that. I'm choosing side projects that 1) are interesting 2) will
help me learn something new 3) may help me earn some bucks. For example, my
current side project is a wordpress theme for building personal
website/portfolios targeted for hacker/designers. It is fun and I can use it
for my own site. It allows me to learn something new - wordpress theme
development/underscores and practice design. It may help me earn some bucks. I
will post about it on HN in couple of days once I complete the boring bit -
documentation.

------
richo
He refers to paying customers repeatedly.

None of my side projects even entertain the ideas of being profitable. I can't
help but feel this is why I feel better about side projects than the author.

------
thebigrace
A side project doesn't need customers, a side project doesn't need money, a
side project just needs to be something that you want to do. If it makes
money, great! If not, it doesn't matter because you are doing it for yourself
and noone else.

------
annelie
When I first read his comment I was sure that I agreed, that we often start
side projects without a plan or an agenda which make many of them "fail". Then
I read yours and agreed once again. Why does everything have to be about
"results." Then I realised that they question is not about either. Its about
the motivation and the goal with the side project.

If the motivation is to try something new and the goal is to have fun. It does
not matter if you do it for two years and then end up not doing it. But if the
goal and the motivation for the side project is to start earning money on it
or do start a business, then I think he is right. Then they need well defined
goals, a plan and an agenda to succeed.

So it is all about the reason you do it.

------
kamaal
If you are worried about failure, then side projects are not for you. Or you
don't get the point of side projects. Failures are cheap in a side project,
unless your investments are huge. Side projects exist because you would not
sacrifice your full time job on something you don't trust shifting to
completely.

Besides, if you are familiar with the concept of iteration. Even if you fail
you will improve with every iteration of failure.

One cannot decide for everybody else, if they need side projects. Personally I
find side projects a nice break from the 9-5 corporate job, to try something
new and different. It gives a good learning opportunity and opens up chances
for some extra income.

By the way, if you are afraid of failure. I'm not talking about big risks. But
if you absolutely have problems with failing. And if you are asking these kind
of questions before trying anything, you are likely to do nothing substantial
in life.

------
hatu
Everything in your life doesn't have to turn into a business. I love
programming and making games and solving problems, it's just as much of a
hobby alongside work as going for a run in the forest.

------
kstenerud
"So, perhaps better advice is to be aware that some day you will want to
graduate to definite goals."

Or perhaps it would better be worded as: be aware that some day you MAY want
to graduate to definite goals.

But even that sounds pretty condescending and limiting. Why should I have a
goal in mind when I create? Why should I have deadlines? Why should I sprint?
What's the hurry, anyway?

When I started writing a 68000 emulator, I did so because it posed an
interesting challenge. When I finally got it to the point where I could plug
it into MAME and play Rastan Saga on it, I was thrilled. When I got its speed
to the point where it rivaled the existing assembler core, I was stoked. And
then eventually it reached a point of accuracy and performance that it
supplanted the old core and became the standard 68k core in most emulators in
use today. Did I have a plan? Not really, other than to try my hand at
emulation. Did I have deadlines? Hell no. Did I have metrics? Well, if
accuracy and speed counts, then sure. Did I make any money off it? Nope. And
you know what? I don't care. I created something of beauty using the skills
available to me at the time.

That was over 10 years ago. Now I create different things and post them to
github, but my motivation remains the same.

------
sauliuz
Side projects are good for you? I think it depends. Enterpreneurial types in
most cases can't specialize (they get bored and demotivated quickly while
doing it) but trive while stiching things together and see them work / produce
results. This is their motivation and if you are such person and do not get
enough of playground at day job you have 2 options, quit or kick off some side
projects. I also admire people who can specialize. Lets call them real
engineer types. Only because of them we have all technology things running day
to day. But I guess side projects are not such necessity for these guys. In
both cases I was talking about people in software dev space.

------
jot
This reminded me of Tom Armitage's excellent dConstruct talk on Toys and
Toymaking:

<http://2012.dconstruct.org/conference/armitage/>

 _"Toys are not idle knick-knacks: they allow us to explore otherwise
impossible terrain; fire the imagination; provide sparks for structured play.
They do not just entertain and delight; they stimulate and inspire. And
always, they remind us of the value - and values - to be found in abstract
play."_

I wish I'd treated more of my side projects as toys instead of putting off
shipping them because they lacked obvious value.

------
sgdesign
My own take on side projects:

<http://sachagreif.com/side-projects-from-idea-to-launch/>

I think there's a place for small-scale, non-commercial side projects. I've
personally learned a lot from them.

------
hackNightly
I feel like I create side projects due to my insatiable desire to be creating
things. Sometimes I finish them. More often I do not. Every time, though, I
learn something new and useful.

------
hayksaakian
The only real goal I keep in mind with side projects is to avoid becoming
consumed by them unless they justify my attention (user interest, profit
motive).

Be mindful of feature creep.

------
Techasura
i love the point you try to make, it is more like questioning a Kinder garden
kid as to why you wanna join kinder garden. it would be more beautiful and
interesting if we start anything just for fun.

------
michaelochurch
The economics of side projects really underscores the hypocrisy of the
corporate ruling class.

First, what is the first thing that a person learns about being wealthy?
_Diversify._ That's one of the most basic principles of financial common
sense. Yet it's extremely frowned upon for working people to do the same with
their time. If your primary asset is money, you're allowed to diversify. If
your primary asset is time and you try to diversify and get caught having a
side project, you're "not a team player".

For most corporate jobs, the work itself could be accomplished in 2 to 3 hours
per day. People simply don't have enough productive time to fill a corporate
workday, a schedule that is based more on availability (often, availability
for low-margin uses like worthless meetings) than productivity.

The corporate workday is an international plane ride (8 to 12 hours, mostly
sequestered in one location) five times a week. Is this about productivity?
No. It's about required loyalty. Even though people only have 3-4 hours of
productive time per day, the purpose of the midday plane ride is to dominate
so much of someone's time as to maximize the probability of capturing those
hours. It's to make it so that the person's side efforts are unlikely to be
able to compete, so that diversification isn't (for most people) an option.

~~~
davidw
The reason people specialize is that there are increasing returns to
specialization, as Adam Smith pointed out many years ago.

Therefore, if you specialize, you'll be able to trade your time for more
money/bread/whatever. If you want, you can do a little bit of programming and
a little bit of ditch digging, and a little baking, and be terrible at all of
them, and get paid consequently.

It's not some plot of the "corporate ruling class", whatever that is. Ordinary
people diversify their _investments_ as well, mostly via things like index
funds, which can be had at very cheap prices.

~~~
kamaal
Strange that the people at the top are excluded from this. People sitting on
the board are on board of many other companies too!

Somehow only grass root level employees are asked to make these concessions.

~~~
davidw
People on boards are people who are, supposedly, specialized in running
companies and various aspects thereof, by and large.

 _Edit_ :

> Somehow only grass root level employees are asked to make these concessions.

So you'd call someone who has spent years becoming a neurosurgeon 'grass root
level'? Most people out there specialize in something.

~~~
kamaal
People like me writing code who are, supposedly, specialized in writing
various kinds of writing software/building things and various aspects thereof,
by and large.

P.S: Its the same with every/any profession that exists on earth.

~~~
davidw
Well, if you want to program/do tech for multiple companies, that's pretty
easy: it's called contracting or consulting. It pays pretty well, too, if
you're good at it.

