Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How do you come up with hobby projects?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 24 posts

Re: Ask HN: How do you come up with hobby projects?

#11

Post by paperrr1 »

collyw wrote: post #5
jmnicolas wrote: post #2

I don't think there is a method to it : as a developer you should see a lot of opportunities to automate things in your daily life. If not you probably need some hobbies outside the dev world. I started coding about 10 years ago because I wanted to make a better bot for World Of Warcraft than what was available. Literally if it wasn't for WOW and an obnoxious coder that wouldn't share his bot code I wouldn't be a dev…

Sorry that sounds a bit nonsense to me. All the things I enjoy doing outside of work involve getting away from the computer as much as possible. Mountain biking, kayaking, drinking. Cooking is about the only hobby that could involve something, but there are a ton of cooking related websites.

Make a mountainn biking application. Or one for kayaking! Or how about script that will crawl various websites and map the locations of various pubs that have various craft beers on tap? See, I just came up with a viable application you could develope in literally 20 seconds.

Re: Ask HN: How do you come up with hobby projects?

#13

Post by iisbum »

Hobby projects, usually solve a problem that I'm experiencing, the proverbial itch that needs scratching.

If I happen to be looking to try out a new library or programming language I give it ago, even if its not the best choice, because its just a hobby project.

I've done this with recently with: http://optionsworth.com/ and http://dailyriver.herokuapp.com/

Re: Ask HN: How do you come up with hobby projects?

#14

Post by kohanz »

Mine are usually derived from my non-technical (non-computer) interests and scratching my own itch. For example, my need for a source for quick at-a-glance recap of NBA games (when I found myself with less time to follow sports) is what spawned Recapp'd (which was also my "learn Rails" project).

Shameless plug: http://recappd.com

Re: Ask HN: How do you come up with hobby projects?

#15

Post by tyurok »

collyw wrote: post #5
jmnicolas wrote: post #2

I don't think there is a method to it : as a developer you should see a lot of opportunities to automate things in your daily life. If not you probably need some hobbies outside the dev world. I started coding about 10 years ago because I wanted to make a better bot for World Of Warcraft than what was available. Literally if it wasn't for WOW and an obnoxious coder that wouldn't share his bot code I wouldn't be a dev…

Sorry that sounds a bit nonsense to me. All the things I enjoy doing outside of work involve getting away from the computer as much as possible. Mountain biking, kayaking, drinking. Cooking is about the only hobby that could involve something, but there are a ton of cooking related websites.

The fact that there's a ton of related websites shouldn't ever stop you from doing a simple side project, since it's for learning purposes anyway. And a "copy" of something can always shift into something original.

Re: Ask HN: How do you come up with hobby projects?

#17

Post by collyw »

tyurok wrote: post #15
collyw wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry that sounds a bit nonsense to me. All the things I enjoy doing outside of work involve getting away from the computer as much as possible. Mountain biking, kayaking, drinking. Cooking is about the only hobby that could involve something, but there are a ton of cooking related websites.

The fact that there's a ton of related websites shouldn't ever stop you from doing a simple side project, since it's for learning purposes anyway. And a "copy" of something can always shift into something original.

I am doing a work related side project, as I think there might be more business opportunity in it. Plus its what I know well.

Re: Ask HN: How do you come up with hobby projects?

#18

Post by ylg »

I find my interest is most piqued by non-programming fields. So, for me the answer to this question has been: listen for opportunities in the communities around fun, non-programming fields. In my case, listening to a NASA Twitter account led to a weekend hackathon that showed the possibility of programming around live telemetry from space vehicles, which I've been noodling with ever since: https://github.com/sensedata/space-telemetry

Another idea I've been messing around with for ages is a mobile app to support bicycle wheel building; something else seemingly non-programming that I love doing and so looked at specifically to see if I could invent a way to a hobby project.

And, games are another arena that have worked well for me, i.e., programming around them is fun enough to keep me well enough engaged to learn and understand new things. Mods, play-support tools, and of course actual (mini) games. If this sounds interesting, I recommend finding a moddable indie game to start with; micro-studios can be very friendly and supportive of modders in ways that keep you coming back for more.

PS From the OP's context, I'm assuming the real question is "How do you come up with hobby, programming projects that keep your professional abilities fresh and varied?"

Re: Ask HN: How do you come up with hobby projects?

#19

Post by edoceo »

I'm on the opposite side. I've got dozens of hobby-code projects. I can't go a month w/o some idea. The idea comes first then I pick technology I'm not familiar with to build it as a method to learn.

I spend a bunch of non-work time mentoring/advising early tech-founders so there is constant ideation around me which keeps my imagination going.

Re: Ask HN: How do you come up with hobby projects?

#20

Post by DanBC »

collyw wrote: post #5
jmnicolas wrote: post #2

I don't think there is a method to it : as a developer you should see a lot of opportunities to automate things in your daily life. If not you probably need some hobbies outside the dev world. I started coding about 10 years ago because I wanted to make a better bot for World Of Warcraft than what was available. Literally if it wasn't for WOW and an obnoxious coder that wouldn't share his bot code I wouldn't be a dev…

Sorry that sounds a bit nonsense to me. All the things I enjoy doing outside of work involve getting away from the computer as much as possible. Mountain biking, kayaking, drinking. Cooking is about the only hobby that could involve something, but there are a ton of cooking related websites.

Mountain biking: route planning; journey mapping; distance logging; GPS direction showing; etc etc.

For someone who wants ideas you use your non-computer hobbies as somewhere to get ideas.

Post reply on HN