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It's OK to abandon your side-project (2024)

robbowen.digital

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Re: It's OK to abandon your side-project (2024)

#61

Post by rambambram »

raphinou wrote: post #21

I have such a project I just can't shut down: https://myowndb.com/ I started it 20 years ago, with ruby on rails. I neglected it but then decided to rewrite it in F# and publish it as open source ( https://gitlab.com/myowndb/myowndb ). There are very few users, some from many years ago, all non paying. None gave any feedback I asked during the rewrite. I should have shut it down years ago, but I just can't take the s…

Perfect website! Clear texts, clear screenshots, and an about page with a small photo of the person behind it. If I wasn't already using PHPMyAdmin I would definitely consider your product trustworthy. Am I right that it is - sort of - the same functionality as PHPMyAdmin?

I especially appreciate the honesty about the upcoming pricing. Do you plan/want to make it a business?

Re: It's OK to abandon your side-project (2024)

#62

Post by gilleain »

embedding-shape wrote: post #46
gilleain wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also it can give a feeling that it was not a waste of time - lessons learned, what you would do next time on other projects, other avenues to look into. For years I wrote a technical blog intended just for my own reference, as the small effort required to write it up, create images and so on felt good. It was also a good point to think about what I had _actually_ done - sometimes this made me realise small mistakes o…

> Also it can give a feeling that it was not a waste of time Another way to avoid that feeling is changing your mindset around what's "abandoned" vs "completed". "Completed" doesn't have to mean "published project and made it FOSS" or whatever, it could literally be "Scratched an itch to play around with library X's APIs" or something, or just "Wanted to see if it was possible". Nowdays I "complete" every single of m…

That's fair (and of course, as a personal project, set any goal you like! :) ) - but I wonder if that risks setting the bar too low, so that everything is 'completed'.

I think, we're in agreement : it's your project, so you get to say what 'completed' means, but my criteria is usually writing some small amount of text about it, even if that text is "this didn't work, ho-hum".

Re: It's OK to abandon your side-project (2024)

#63

Post by wrongcards »

ahaferburg wrote: post #58
wrongcards wrote: post #29

I've been running my side project - free ecards that are wrong for every occasion - ( https://wrongcards.com ) for eighteen years. I felt like the internet needed something like that, back in 2008. Back then, it was a tribute to the 90s era of terrible, awful ecards websites, about which I had become oddly nostalgic. It was also semi-intentionally a terrible idea from a SEO perspective (ecause, like, search engines a…

Maybe you could try to find somebody to take over or help you maintain it?

I've got friends who've helped, now and then. But all my friends are either too busy being successful in their career, or too fundamentally silly and unreliable. That said, I don't rule it out. It'd be a shame for the site to disappear off the web, forever.

Also, there's 701 cards. I have this mad idea I should get to at least 1000, before bowing out.

Re: It's OK to abandon your side-project (2024)

#64

Post by mablopoule »

mjd wrote: post #3

Abandoned doesn't have to be forever. As I got older I had a longer time horizon and more skill, and found I was picking up and finishing projects I'd laid aside decades earlier. Now when I put something aside I know there's a chance I might pick it up again in ten years. There wasn't much evidence of that when I was twenty-five. It's been one of the best things for me about middle age.

As someone who feels stressed about not feeling able to finish the side projects I have (that is, working on my music player, learn Arabic, and learning to draw), this is a very refreshing take. Thank you for this.

Re: It's OK to abandon your side-project (2024)

#65

Post by PoorRustDev »

I actually disagree and I hope others can help suggest some strategy for me to start finishing side projects. I haven’t finished anything that isn’t a university assignment so far. I always start something and end up putting it aside to work on exams or graded assignments.

Re: It's OK to abandon your side-project (2024)

#66

Post by NuclearPM »

wrongcards wrote: post #29

I've been running my side project - free ecards that are wrong for every occasion - ( https://wrongcards.com ) for eighteen years. I felt like the internet needed something like that, back in 2008. Back then, it was a tribute to the 90s era of terrible, awful ecards websites, about which I had become oddly nostalgic. It was also semi-intentionally a terrible idea from a SEO perspective (ecause, like, search engines a…

I’ve had an idea for the last 15 years.

~10 bucks and a card is printed and mailed to address for you. Add a few bucks for a handwritten note.

I still think this is a good idea. I just had too many other failed ideas to put the time into it.

Re: It's OK to abandon your side-project (2024)

#67

Post by tasuki »

wrongcards wrote: post #63
ahaferburg wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you could try to find somebody to take over or help you maintain it?

I've got friends who've helped, now and then. But all my friends are either too busy being successful in their career, or too fundamentally silly and unreliable. That said, I don't rule it out. It'd be a shame for the site to disappear off the web, forever. Also, there's 701 cards. I have this mad idea I should get to at least 1000, before bowing out.

It's a good project. I had a look at a couple and they were very funny but I won't look at all of them anyway.

Just keep the site up sounds enough!

Re: It's OK to abandon your side-project (2024)

#68

Post by mwigdahl »

lpribis wrote: post #54
gchadwick wrote: post #10

On your side-project it's also ok to ignore best engineering practice, reinvent the wheel because you feel like it or make decisions based on what seems most interesting even if it's not a 'good' decision. The critical thing is what the author says: > always make sure that you're doing them for yourself, and for the right reasons For me my side projects are generally something to have fun with and something to learn…

> On your side-project it's also ok to ignore best engineering practice, reinvent the wheel because you feel like it or make decisions based on what seems most interesting even if it's not a 'good' decision. Pro tip for enjoying your life at work: this also applies to you work projects. Once you realize this, you can have a lot more fun at work and even coerce work projects to be more like your for-fun/side projects.…

I will use this when I need to explain the Chaotic Neutral alignment to my D+D players in the future. Thanks!

Re: It's OK to abandon your side-project (2024)

#70

Post by renegade-otter »

It's the last 10% that's the hardest last 90%. Thankfully, with LLMs, it's much easier to push a project over the line to be "feature-complete".

This has been my experience, but most of it is still arduous work, if the goal is to push the limits and learn something new.

I am not talking about vibe-coding a throwaway prototype.

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