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

I spent two years launching tiny projects

tinyprojects.dev

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 199 posts

Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects

#11

Post by hardwaresofton »

One thing I would have loved to read about is more about how they did market validation for these ideas. For a micro-bet strategy knowing which one (outside of really interesting projects that would trend on HN), it feels like market validation chops would be crucial.

The author seems to be batting an insanely high average for just building things and having them actually get some traction, and be exit-able.

> When I started this mission, I had a big list of project ideas that I'd built up in my phone. Maybe you have one of those lists too.

> Two years later, I've realised a lot of these initial ideas were pretty terrible.

> It's a paradox, but I've found that my best ideas now come from building other ideas.

Funnily enough, I went the other way and started sharing my large list of ideas with others (I send 3 non-terrible ones to subscribers every week[0]). Of course, running a mailing list and sharing the ideas was one of the ideas...

At this point market validation (and practice validating ideas) is starting to seem like the most important thing. Knowing you should take the month to build before you do, but reading the post it feels like maybe bounding initial development time sometimes can work in lieu of validating the market.

[EDIT] - please see previous discussion about the mailing list as well![1] -- it's released every sunday night.

[EDIT2] - is anyone having trouble sending email to the author? I'm using protonmail and wanted to get in touch but I can't -- email looks to be no bueno for proton mail. I guess I'll either try thunderbird or twitter.

[EDIT3] - Looks like proton mail does not like emoji email addresses currently... Thunderbird happily sent.

[EDIT4] - Nope, nvm I'm getting a mail lookup error (hn strips the emoji)...

> Delivery to tinyprojects@.gg failed with error: MX lookup error

[0]: https://unvalidated-ideas.vadosware.io

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31388399

Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects

#12

Post by bodge5000 »

dafelst wrote: post #6

As someone who perpetually overscopes side projects and ends up biting off more than I can reasonably chew given my free time, I really love this idea. What happens with me is I start a new project, then add a new feature here and there (because coding is fun) and end up never reaching anything close to "done" then getting into analysis paralysis of what to do next because there is so much. Ultimately it gets abandon…

> Ultimately it gets abandoned and forgotten and put on the graveyard of all the other side projects

Could be worse. I used to have this problem all the time, and at some point managed to fix it. Now I've spent 3 years on a side project (which I originally thought should take a couple of months, and considering its lack of complexity really only should have taken at most a year), and even though I'm fully aware its an "unworkable" idea, I can't stop until its done.

I've read tiny projects in the past though and really like it, I really want to try a similar thing at some point...just as soon as this current project is done ;)

Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects

#14

Post by lancesells »

toto444 wrote: post #4

That was actually a pleasant read. I especially like the conclusion to which I can relate. > If you're stuck for ideas, I recommend just building something; anything; even if it's terrible, and I guarantee a better idea will pop into your brain shortly after. I have been working on a long project for a few years now and it will not be finished before another few years and I envy the speed at which the author gets fee…

That conclusion is really applicable to just about everything. Want to start woodworking? Start building something. Want to become a runner? Start running. Want to be a musician? Start making some songs.

A lot of the initial tries will be terrible but it only gets better from there.

Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects

#15

Post by cjohnson318 »

dafelst wrote: post #6

As someone who perpetually overscopes side projects and ends up biting off more than I can reasonably chew given my free time, I really love this idea. What happens with me is I start a new project, then add a new feature here and there (because coding is fun) and end up never reaching anything close to "done" then getting into analysis paralysis of what to do next because there is so much. Ultimately it gets abandon…

This idea comes up in painting. The rule of thumb is that it's done when there's nothing left to add; when adding the next thing does not provide much more value value than it costs in terms complexity.

With coding, it seems like it's much more difficult question to answer.

Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects

#16

Post by hamiecod »

ChrisArchitect wrote: post #2

$18000 off of emoji email in kazakhstan? what the hell?

While reading the post, I realised that it was a really great idea to say the least but I was very shocked when I saw that OP earned $18000 off the project. Although, one down-side of using email addresses which contain emojis is that some email clients do not support them.

Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects

#17

Post by ChrisArchitect »

ChrisArchitect wrote: post #2

$18000 off of emoji email in kazakhstan? what the hell?

Also, are domains not $5-$10 say? ~$2000 on 'tiny projects'?

...ahh, read the full breakdown, it is approximately something like that, which seems crazy, but I dunno, guy has some money to spare and went nuts with the project and sold a bunch of accounts. (also weird, but tiktokers susceptible to random stuff I guess)

Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects

#18

Post by ohlookabird »

cjohnson318 wrote: post #15
dafelst wrote: post #6

As someone who perpetually overscopes side projects and ends up biting off more than I can reasonably chew given my free time, I really love this idea. What happens with me is I start a new project, then add a new feature here and there (because coding is fun) and end up never reaching anything close to "done" then getting into analysis paralysis of what to do next because there is so much. Ultimately it gets abandon…

This idea comes up in painting. The rule of thumb is that it's done when there's nothing left to add; when adding the next thing does not provide much more value value than it costs in terms complexity. With coding, it seems like it's much more difficult question to answer.

With coding, I often find Antoine de Saint-Exupéry helping me to limit myself: "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
Post reply on HN