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Ask HN: What is your “I don't care if this succeeds” project?

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Re: Ask HN: What is your “I don't care if this succeeds” project?

#331
post #80

My day job. Personal projects get a little more heart, but "success" to me is usually intrinsic, not extrinsic. I'm probably a little weird when it comes to motivating factors, but not alone.

Oof. This is probably most people, too. There need to be more jobs where the interest alignment in work is 100%. Disney animators, Nintendo programmers, audio programming, SpaceX engineers, ML/AI, bioinformatics, ... Rockets, chemicals, machines, visual toys, solving moonshot things, ... Less plumbing and glue code. Less adtech. Less studying and optimizing trivial human interactions that nobody will remember.

I like my job. I mean, it's not necessarily my _passion_, but I care about the cause and believe I contribute directly and significantly to it. And while there is a lot of plumbing to do, I also have freedom to explore news ideas and learn new things.

But "anything I do for work" was my first thought when I saw this post.

What it comes down to is that there's only so much I can do to help my work's projects succeed. There's just too much out of my control. Decisions have already been made; contracts are already being signed; the clients believe they've done enough testing.

I can pick up the slack, go above and beyond, and do other people's job. But the project can still fail to get user buy-in, fail to make any notable impact, fail to make or save money, or just outright fail for reasons I can do nothing about.

That doesn't mean I don't try. I just don't care if these projects succeed. If we did what we could and learned things we can carry forward, I'm satisfied.

Re: Ask HN: What is your “I don't care if this succeeds” project?

#332

I posted this as a show HN a few weeks ago, I maintain a small, completely free html/js game. There's no chance of it ever making money in its current form, it's just a fun waste of time with a few hundred players[0]. [0] https://wallsmash.com

Awesome game

Re: Ask HN: What is your “I don't care if this succeeds” project?

#333
post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you! Yeah absolutely it was influenced by AoE, more in a thematic sense rather than the gameplay which is more influenced by grand strategies and Total War. Come to think of it, there's really no reason I can't release it on Mac since it's Unreal Engine, apart from me not owning a new model that can run it. If the game's a success (hopefully!) it would definitely be worth getting one so I can build for it.

Based on the spec requirements listed in the Steam store, I think you should be able to target 8 or 16GB M1 Macbook Airs. Everything else is above that. And targeting Intel Macs is pointless. An M1 Air is $1200ish. So it shouldn't be a burden assuming you have outside income and desire :). Good luck!

$1200 isn't bad! You've convinced me, I'm releasing it for Mac.

Re: Ask HN: What is your “I don't care if this succeeds” project?

#334

When you plug a Macbook in with the included two-prong power adapter, sometimes it buzzes slightly when you stroke it gently (ground loop). Im working with a factory to make a grounded duckhead adapter to fix this. https://ibb.co/P4Bjstg

Hi, could you explain why this happens normally? Isn't the output neutral line of the DC charger supposed to be pretty much 0/ground anyway? Or is it that the neutral is a few volts off the ground?

I wish I could, but I honestly don't know. All I know for sure is that using the ground pin 100% fixes it. If anybody on here could explain it, I'd be super grateful!

Re: Ask HN: What is your “I don't care if this succeeds” project?

#335
post #228

No Nonsense Recipes - https://nononsense.recipes I built it mainly to scratch my own itch out of frustration with recipe blogs and their endless stories and photo collages before they get to the point where they actually tell you how to make the recipe. It seems a pretty common complaint, so I thought other people might be interested. I added a subscription because I don't like ads and tracking and everything that go…

I love the idea but it needs pictures really bad. I’m not gonna be able to pick a recipe based on a text description, the photo is what reels me in.

Re: Ask HN: What is your “I don't care if this succeeds” project?

#337
post #321

I made a little dungeon crawler game that I needed to make to prove to myself I could actually ship a complete game, which has been a struggle for me. https://smoldungeon.com

This is really great, good job! Google did a good job with auto-creating your preview text, but you should definitely add a meta description to that landing page :) https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fsmoldun...

Oh thanks! I'll do that, I do not know anything about SEO.

Re: Ask HN: What is your “I don't care if this succeeds” project?

#338

I have a podcast where me and a guest talk about technical interviewing then they give me a live technical interview. Video podcast: https://www.youtube.com/c/TaylorDorsett/ It's fun because I get talk with smart people about a topic with no real solution, then sometimes I do well or sometimes I get destroyed in the interviews. I'd love to have more subscribers but I don't think its ever going to make me any money.

Do you have an audio version? I’ve been looking for something exactly like this for walks.

Yup!

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7zvt9QZWMUGsQ27NM8XuMd?si=6c7e...

Podbean: https://professionaltechnicalintervieweewithtaylordorsett.po...

Re: Ask HN: What is your “I don't care if this succeeds” project?

#340

My day job. Personal projects get a little more heart, but "success" to me is usually intrinsic, not extrinsic. I'm probably a little weird when it comes to motivating factors, but not alone.

Have you considered using "will the skills I hone here help me with my side projects?" as a way to decide which job to apply for? I don't have enough data to say it's a good idea, but so far I'm liking it.

Useful metric!

Among the other factors, which are:

"Does this job allow me to have time to do side projects?"

"Does this job provide the funds for my hobby?"

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