It's OK to abandon your side-project • Hacker News Board

Re: It's OK to abandon your side-project

#11

Post by murukesh_s » Mon, Feb 26, 2024, 4:35 AM UTC

jongjong wrote: post #5

Fear of sunk cost is why I only built developer tools so far. As a developer, I know what tool I need to build software quickly and effectively. But unfortunately just as I finished building my no-code/low-code platform, the dev tool market has become completely monopolized. All developers are focused on a tiny number of tools so now I'm forced to focus on a niche outside industry. Thankfully I can use my own no/low-…

Could you share the link to what you have built? Would love to take a look..

>developers are focused on a tiny number of tools

Thats marketing. You think the market is saturated but we often see one new product comes and capture the entire market. Sometimes small changes like change of Licensing can swing users away from dominant players.

Re: It's OK to abandon your side-project

#12

Post by LAC-Tech » Mon, Feb 26, 2024, 4:42 AM UTC

No it's not, I put it on my Resume. Also it's a really good design.

Re: It's OK to abandon your side-project

#13

Post by bruce511 » Mon, Feb 26, 2024, 4:43 AM UTC

jongjong wrote: post #5

Fear of sunk cost is why I only built developer tools so far. As a developer, I know what tool I need to build software quickly and effectively. But unfortunately just as I finished building my no-code/low-code platform, the dev tool market has become completely monopolized. All developers are focused on a tiny number of tools so now I'm forced to focus on a niche outside industry. Thankfully I can use my own no/low-…

The dev tool market has always been completely monopolised. My own career started with Borland, then Microsoft took over. On Apple it was always objective C, and now Swift. Linux will jump every few years, as long as it's free.

In truth developer tools are a tough sell because choices today matter 25 years from now. Plus you are selling to a market of people who mostly expect stuff for free, or write it themselves.

Yes, it's a LOT easier to sell software to pretty much anyone else, so we'll done for identifying that.

And yes, there are some still selling tools to developers, but its a tiny niche, and has been for 20 years.

Re: It's OK to abandon your side-project

#14

Post by timwheeler » Mon, Feb 26, 2024, 4:44 AM UTC

jimbokun wrote: post #7

Great story of a successful failure. The app was a failure, because he learned everything he needed to know by writing the app. There are a lot of software projects that fail in the sense of not being released or used, but valuable from what was learned in the process of developing it.

Agreed, just went through this after spending a year and a half adding a bunch of cool real-time features to an app of mine that no one asked for. Still a win because now I’ve “done it before” :)

Re: It's OK to abandon your side-project

#15

Post by abroadwin » Mon, Feb 26, 2024, 4:57 AM UTC

rootcage wrote: post #2

Grit and perseverance are often talked about as critical qualities in building something successful but knowing when to quit and start over is equally as important. Food for thought, that most "startup" gurus don't preach.

Sunk cost fallacy is real.

Re: It's OK to abandon your side-project

#16

Post by winklevii » Mon, Feb 26, 2024, 4:57 AM UTC

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Re: It's OK to abandon your side-project

#17

Post by rjh29 » Mon, Feb 26, 2024, 4:59 AM UTC

I had a similar experience writing a dictionary for Japanese person names based on usage frequency. In collecting the data I went from zero to being able to read the majority of names. I did end up making a frontend app for the data but I hardly ever use it.

Re: It's OK to abandon your side-project

#18

Post by networkchad » Mon, Feb 26, 2024, 5:16 AM UTC

kazinator wrote: post #6

If you're explaining case to English speakers, don't use sentence with "he" and "her" as examples of how English does not have case, and does not allow easy rearrangement. Because those pronouns are the one place in English where vestiges of case can be found, making it confusing.

[dead]

Re: It's OK to abandon your side-project

#19

Post by steve_adams_86 » Mon, Feb 26, 2024, 5:17 AM UTC

itqwertz wrote: post #3

As long as you complete it, just keep it out there. You never know when your half-baked idea might result in a lead for something new. It’s fun to go back to old projects and finish them with new skills you’ve acquired over the years.

It’s like returning to an early area in an RPG and discovering side quests and treasure chests you couldn’t reach before.

Re: It's OK to abandon your side-project

#20

Post by higgins » Mon, Feb 26, 2024, 5:20 AM UTC

itqwertz wrote: post #3

As long as you complete it, just keep it out there. You never know when your half-baked idea might result in a lead for something new. It’s fun to go back to old projects and finish them with new skills you’ve acquired over the years.

good to keep this in mind while you're designing it. "will i be able to maintain this for 10+ years?"