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

Those that are more successful can get past that and make something more profound. There's a lot more than dopamine when you make something you can be truly proud of, that can potentially be a living for you as well.

Back in my early career years, and even before when I was a student, I used to have a lot of cool side projects that would only interest me for so long. I would spend a few hours or days on them, and then throw them out or forget them.

It was ok because I did not care about the project in itself. It was interesting to try new techs, or methods, or just spend some time doing something I loved.

It stopped being ok when something shifted in my mind : I subconsciously decided that I wanted to stick to a project. But it was for the wrong reasons. I wanted to make money. I wanted to have a cool startup. I wanted to be able to stop working. Too much Hackernews hype. But since I did not really care about the project itself, I never managed to stick to it.

After years of frustration, I quit wasting my time and took on some other non IT related hobbies.

Two years ago, I picked a side project for the first time in years: it's a cool music theory related website.

https://www.mamie-note.fr in case you're curious.

I've managed to keep working on it (and being interested to do it) since then. It's the longest time I've ever spent on a single project.

Here are the things that are different for me today:

  - I do care about the project in itself: it's the site I wish existed when I started learning music, and the site grows as I'm growing as a musician.
  - I really enjoy the daily process of working on it, I don't fantasize about how great the end result will be in a few years.
  - I don't care about the tech, I care about the topic.
  - I'm turning the site into a business, but making a living with it will be a cool side effect, not the main objective.
  - Since I do have a family now (and we are in lockdown), I have much less time to work on it. It's easier to stay motivated when you spend two or three ours on a project instead of 15 or 20.
  - Working on this project is a hobby, but it's not my only hobby, I take interest in other things, so when I'm bored and don't sweat it and take breaks for some days or weeks.

I can be disciplined enough to stick with something as part of a lifestyle, or whatever I find consistently rewarding, e.g. an exercise regimen and cooking new things. When it comes to creative projects, I'll get to the point of having a rough outline but often just ditch the rest. Particularly with music more-so than writing, the pursuit feels pointless or unimportant, and I always got the sense that the special catalyst with music is people, feeding off the passion of other musicians. I tend now to skip the BS and just go straight to composition since that is the aspect of music that most interests me.

You not just need 'delivery' goals, but small goals as well, like missions in a game. Where you see you are progressing.

Also in videogames you never hit a wall, you never have to fight a boss that impossible to beat at your level. Side projects are more like those pay to win games. Where the first part is easy, but after that, the progress can be slow. You have to get a big reward (for me it is usually scratching my own itch) to make the grinding part work.