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It's OK to abandon your side-project

robbowen.digital

21–30 of 82 posts

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

#21
post #20
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?"

The greatest measure of a side-project's success is whether it can be maintained after you move on

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

#22
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.

What if it becomes so popular it's costing hundreds of dollars to host. Asking for a friend...

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

#23
It's a fair point, but I often see all the ideas I abandoned and realize how some of them could have become profitable had I persisted and not lost motivation. Even a tiny setback (say, no response on Hacker News) was enough for me to stop working on the idea, and start working on something new. Of course, you learn a lot along the way, but to have a successful side-hustle you need to learn to sustain and channel the motivation.

As a creative person, motivation is a wild beast for me. Once I lose it for a project, reviving it feels impossible. But the mindset is a bit troubling. I don't think I would ever work on a project long-term working this way. So, while it's okay to abandon your side-project, it's important to make a mental note of why you're abandoning your project and if you can work on something better next time.

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

#24

It's a fair point, but I often see all the ideas I abandoned and realize how some of them could have become profitable had I persisted and not lost motivation. Even a tiny setback (say, no response on Hacker News) was enough for me to stop working on the idea, and start working on something new. Of course, you learn a lot along the way, but to have a successful side-hustle you need to learn to sustain and channel the…

Is your motivation validation or learning? If it's learning, each day will be a win...even if your user metrics are trending downwards. If it's validation, your motivation will fluctuate with your traffic patterns.

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

#26

If you abandon and don’t plan for anything in the future, please MIT open source it. Maybe someone else likes it. So many nice things just disappear…

That always sounds easier than it is in reality as usually when you came to terms with abandoning your project you don't want to go back to it and spend time on making sure there's no secrets checked in or hardcoded somewhere. There's no embarrassing comments you want to have public etc.

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

#27

It's a fair point, but I often see all the ideas I abandoned and realize how some of them could have become profitable had I persisted and not lost motivation. Even a tiny setback (say, no response on Hacker News) was enough for me to stop working on the idea, and start working on something new. Of course, you learn a lot along the way, but to have a successful side-hustle you need to learn to sustain and channel the…

> Even a tiny setback (say, no response on Hacker News) was enough for me to stop working on the idea, and start working on something new.

It's a risk worth taking. Opening the front page only to find my project there made me very happy and motivated. I couldn't believe my luck. Someone somehow independently discovered my project, posted it on HN, people were engaging with it and somehow I managed to not miss the small window of time where all this was happening.

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

#28

It's a fair point, but I often see all the ideas I abandoned and realize how some of them could have become profitable had I persisted and not lost motivation. Even a tiny setback (say, no response on Hacker News) was enough for me to stop working on the idea, and start working on something new. Of course, you learn a lot along the way, but to have a successful side-hustle you need to learn to sustain and channel the…

Is your motivation validation or learning? If it's learning, each day will be a win...even if your user metrics are trending downwards. If it's validation, your motivation will fluctuate with your traffic patterns.

Some projects are purely experimental, while some carry the hope that they can be monetized. My point is that I have a habit of abandoning hobbies, books, writing draft, and side-projects altogether thinking my motivation for them has been lost. I don't believe one should force themselves to finish things, but lost motivation is sometimes temporary or a sign of picking up not-so-good ideas. Realizing that and figuring out ways to sustain motivation is an important meta-skill.

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

#29
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.

Found the Zhentarim hideout in Act 1 of Baldur’s Gate on my 4th playthrough

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

#30

It's a fair point, but I often see all the ideas I abandoned and realize how some of them could have become profitable had I persisted and not lost motivation. Even a tiny setback (say, no response on Hacker News) was enough for me to stop working on the idea, and start working on something new. Of course, you learn a lot along the way, but to have a successful side-hustle you need to learn to sustain and channel the…

Hacker news traffic lasts just 2 days.
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