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

Ask HN: How can I pick a side project and stick with it?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 372 posts

Re: Ask HN: How can I pick a side project and stick with it?

#281

Post by totemandtoken »

Maybe try to stone soup yourself. Start a project where the bare bones can be done in a couple of days but the possible features to add are unlimited. For me, there's this implicit calculation of opportunity cost. Like, if I work on this, I can't work on all these other interesting things. But if you switch your mindset to "working on this will help me work on all these other things," that opportunity cost disappears.

For example, just the blockchain data structure (not a full cryptocurrency, just the data structure) is relatively small and doable. Maybe a tiny perceptron or autoencoder. But there's a lot of opportunity to make something with even such small toys.

And don't be afraid of making something that isn't a "true" or "real" whatever. Yeah, it's not a "true" blockchain but it was toy to test your chops on.

Also, whatever you do end up doing, regardless of whether you finish it or not, write about it. Just a paragraph or two of what you were trying to do, how far you got, what made you lose interest. Informally as possible.

Re: Ask HN: How can I pick a side project and stick with it?

#282

Post by tunesmith »

For me I think I just learned to stop being hard on myself for not finishing. They're side projects, you don't owe anything to anyone. I've also found that as time has gone on, certain side projects have remained compelling to me even after getting burned out on them the first time. Some of them I've eventually gotten back to, gave up on again, and then gotten back to. Before long it becomes clear that it's not that I'm perpetually undisciplined and lack follow-through, it's more that I've made slow and steady progress on those projects over the years.

Only other advice I can give is that when picking a side project, find something where the process is as enjoyable as the outcome.

Re: Ask HN: How can I pick a side project and stick with it?

#283

Post by harrisonjackson »

Be realistic with what "done" is when you start a project and force yourself to get to that point. It doesn't have to be published or making money or anything specific, but define what it is and do it.

The more often you get to "done" the easier it is. The same goes for quitting though - every time you quit something it gets easier to excuse yourself the next time and so on.

The last 5% of a project is always the hardest to slog through. Being able to finish things is a super important skill and something I'd say is worth cultivating.

Re: Ask HN: How can I pick a side project and stick with it?

#284

Post by ollerac »

In my experience, switching from task to task and not being able to maintain focus is a minor form of burnout.

It takes energy to stay focused for a long period of time.

My advice: take a few months off. Let your mind wander. If you come up with an idea, let it go if you can. If you come across an idea you can't let go of, even after multiple days or weeks, then maybe you're ready to commit to it!

Re: Ask HN: How can I pick a side project and stick with it?

#285

Post by houssem_fat »

Having exactly the same issue here, i have been working on many software side projects since a while (for 7 years now) and never launched a successful product. For the most of ideas i built about 30/40 % of the platform (user management, profile, authentication, backend apis, emails, architecture, messaging systems, dockerization, other stuff, blogs ...). For me the real obstacles (and what make me give up) were how to put the key features that make my solution better than others. I feel motivated and very exicited for some time but then it collapsed because i need to digg more for the best solution. Examples: 1-how to add e2e video/messaging encryption to an appointment medical app. 2- how to use sms alternative solution to web/mobile apps for farmers who don't have internet connection without using other third parties. 3- build a learning platform for kids but figure out how to provide the cheapest computer solution (raspberry based maybe) because these kids cannot afford a computer. I learnt a lot from these projects both in technical and business aspects but i still feel the imposter syndrome every time i talk about my ideas or when i see another solution similar to my idea who works just fine. But i'm sure that hard things need more hard work. Thank you for this thread.

Re: Ask HN: How can I pick a side project and stick with it?

#286

Post by jayavanth »

inigoesdr wrote: post #84
onion2k wrote: post #24

Focus on solving a problem. Find something you actually care about and need to make instead of something that you think sounds cool or that you think might make money. Let those things happen organically. If you actually solve a problem people will tell you that it's cool, and they might pay you for the solution.

> Find something you actually care about and need to make This is my problem. It's hard to find something that I care about enough to spend time working on it. When I start on something that I do care about, I often find something that already exists that does what I wanted to make.

Do it anyway. Or think about how you can improve it. If it's open-source look at their code and collaborate with them.

Re: Ask HN: How can I pick a side project and stick with it?

#287

Post by hentaiD00m »

ryeguy_24 wrote: post #34

I’m just like you. I stumbled upon a book called Refuse to Choose and it’s about a personality type (that is definitely not ADHD) that happens to want to do a lot of things (sometimes in parallel or in sequence). It was very comforting to know others struggle with this and this book helps you to be ok with it. I wouldn’t say it “cured” me but I think about it differently now and use it more to my advantage. Worth a r…

I've got this problem except with learning / studying.

I realized I am a lot into science and engineering late in life. Now I want to do all of the Khan Academy in Chemistry and Physics; learn nano-/bio-tech; learn cybersecurity... and probably should just stick to learning backend dev in order to get a job.

People call this being a polymath, but I am seriously concerned for myself. The best I can do is take it one subject at a time.

On the building side, I simply have no ideas I am interested going for.

Re: Ask HN: How can I pick a side project and stick with it?

#288

Post by nurettin »

shostack wrote: post #104
nurettin wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eight years ago I was really bored at work (they just asked for a couple of SQL queries a day) so I made a poor man's automated trading system for government bonds. The basic idea was to camp for new bonds and look for new opportunities as soon as they presented themselves. I had also done some rudimentary backtesting to prove some simple strategies for buying and selling. I made no money off of this, it was just for…

Any chance you've written about this side project and the areas you learned about and how to figured those things out?

This is probably the first and only time it was mentioned in public. I do have a private bitbucket graveyard where it resides. Oh and this was done when mongodb was still a thing, so I have some of that going in there for finding sparse stock correlation matrices. And ruby was everywhere at the time, so the bank interface was created in watir instead of puppeteer.

Re: Ask HN: How can I pick a side project and stick with it?

#289

Post by everyone »

Theres a lot of things you may want to do, like you abstractly think that would be good for you somehow, eg. learn the piano.

But for a project that you can stick with through the horrible / boring bits, all the way to completion, pick something you are compelled to do, something you just naturally do and enjoy.

Eg. I make computer games, I think they are fairly pointless, but I can happily make games all day every day. Its the kind of thing I need to force myself to stop doing and go take a break.

Re: Ask HN: How can I pick a side project and stick with it?

#290

Post by bugBunny »

imdsm wrote: post #159
LeonB wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see a big disconnect between: “ I know! I'll write a roguelike in X! Five minutes later, I'm thinking: fuck roguelikes! I'll write a graphical solitar card game with Y! Five minutes later, I don't care for it anymore, and would rather write an isomorphic strategy game in Z.” And: “If you are no longer interested in a project you started, maybe you already got what you came for.” There is no way that you got what yo…

> “If you are no longer interested in a project you started, maybe you already got what you came for.” I found a method for this which works for me. I have a book labelled "Ideas & Inventions" and when I have an idea, I write down everything that suddenly hit me, and I keep writing until I feel I have exhausted the idea. If the idea then goes, I leave it in the book. If the idea remains, I write about it again, until…

Thanks for the tip, will probably try to rewrite the idea myself.
Post reply on HN