Lately an hour or two per week. The only free time I get during the week is on weekends and I usually prefer other things over my side projects.
Ask HN: How much time per week do you spend on side projects?
61–70 of 76 posts
Re: Ask HN: How much time per week do you spend on side projects?
#62I usually spend one day every week. For the last few months, I have been doing a lot of side projects related to the use of machine learning in sports analytics and cyber security. I usually have an idea and spend the next few days trying to write code for the idea. I have had a lot of success with my side projects on Fsecurify.com and Crickytics.com. I initially got a lot of good response from people and that gave me motivation to keep doing these side projects.
Re: Ask HN: How much time per week do you spend on side projects?
#63None. After my first cup of coffee in the morning when I have artificial enthusiasm I always tell myself I will start when I get home, but after 9 hours of making somebody else rich, I am just out of energy, and not interested enough in software to push through.
Sounds like me...only I procrastinate and spend all the time I would working on a side project --thinking up ideas, or 'researching' what others are doing so I can copy/make better/build it and make$$.. Seems I never get past that 'market research' phase .... spend too much time on hackernews/reddit/indiehackers.
Have I posted this while i was sleeping? It sounds exactly like me. I guess I am bitten by analysis paralysis bug. With hundreds of new frameworks coming out each day, one day you think to solve a problem with shiny new tool, next day there is a new one. I spend @ couple of hours each day "thinking" about items to build, unfortunately not been able to draw a line in sand and start it.
Re: Ask HN: How much time per week do you spend on side projects?
#64To everybody posting about not working on a side project because of children, I would ask you to reconsider that if you're truly passionate about something and want to develop it. I've been working on a side project for a few years now. I also have kids and spend a lot of time with them. I've discovered that it's actually very beneficial to spend an extended time working on a project, and by extended time, I don't me…
Seconded. It took me two years to build my current side project, and that's ok. I am no longer 20, I don't have to rush to do everything in an instant. I also noticed that because of the slower pace I often avoid solving problems that can be bypassed altogether. When working at a frantic pace I'd often notice that I solved a problem that didn't really need solving.
Someone once said 90% of problems go away if ignored. In the 19th century British foreign policy coined a phrase for this approach: "masterly inactivity".
Re: Ask HN: How much time per week do you spend on side projects?
#65None. After my first cup of coffee in the morning when I have artificial enthusiasm I always tell myself I will start when I get home, but after 9 hours of making somebody else rich, I am just out of energy, and not interested enough in software to push through.
I know what you're saying; your employer owns the most productive part of your day. The fix that worked for me is get up at 3am so I own the most productive first three hours of the day. Everyone's asleep then, so there are no interruptions. After the day job it's family time and exercise, then I'd be exhausted enough to be asleep by 9pm.
Re: Ask HN: How much time per week do you spend on side projects?
#6640+ haha. Im a Freelance Javascript developer currently having a very easy/boring job.. No kids, no wife, just a dog :) So including weekends I easy hit more then 40 hours! TradeJS https://github.com/DutchKevv/TradeJS
Very slick GUI: nice work!
Re: Ask HN: How much time per week do you spend on side projects?
#67None. After my first cup of coffee in the morning when I have artificial enthusiasm I always tell myself I will start when I get home, but after 9 hours of making somebody else rich, I am just out of energy, and not interested enough in software to push through.
I know what you're saying; your employer owns the most productive part of your day. The fix that worked for me is get up at 3am so I own the most productive first three hours of the day. Everyone's asleep then, so there are no interruptions. After the day job it's family time and exercise, then I'd be exhausted enough to be asleep by 9pm.
Doesn't sound sustainable unless you have the 4h sleep gene.
Re: Ask HN: How much time per week do you spend on side projects?
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know what you're saying; your employer owns the most productive part of your day. The fix that worked for me is get up at 3am so I own the most productive first three hours of the day. Everyone's asleep then, so there are no interruptions. After the day job it's family time and exercise, then I'd be exhausted enough to be asleep by 9pm.
Doesn't sound sustainable unless you have the 4h sleep gene.
I'm a developer to the core, and I've been coding since the late 70s. But I also read a lot, and I've always fancied being a writer and cranking out some middlebrow tech flavoured stuff like Neal Stephenson or Douglas Adams. So I've also read a lot of "how to be a writer" stuff. One comment from an established author stuck with me. When asked "how do you know you're a writer?", the reply was "because you can't not write". When I read that I realised I'm a coder at heart, because I can't not code. The ideas that come to me are software ideas, and they find their expression as code. It's an itch that needs to be scratched. It all comes down to how badly you need to scratch the itch. And I know that if I don't scratch it I'll go mad.
Re: Ask HN: How much time per week do you spend on side projects?
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Doesn't sound sustainable unless you have the 4h sleep gene.
I'm a developer to the core, and I've been coding since the late 70s. But I also read a lot, and I've always fancied being a writer and cranking out some middlebrow tech flavoured stuff like Neal Stephenson or Douglas Adams. So I've also read a lot of "how to be a writer" stuff. One comment from an established author stuck with me. When asked "how do you know you're a writer?", the reply was "because you can't not wr…
Interesting. I guess I'm not a "true coder" by that definition. I'm probably more of a pragmatist than I'd like to admit. I like the results of coding but not for its own sake. If someone has written a hashtable implementation I'll thank them but won't roll my own.
Took me a while to realise this. I kept kicking myself thinking I "should" be more interested in crypto, functional programming etc.
Re: Ask HN: How much time per week do you spend on side projects?
#70None. After my first cup of coffee in the morning when I have artificial enthusiasm I always tell myself I will start when I get home, but after 9 hours of making somebody else rich, I am just out of energy, and not interested enough in software to push through.
Wake up 2hours earlier. Ge a coffee, work 2 hours on your code, then go to work. It works.