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Side projects

antirez.com

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Re: Side projects

#101

Post by txu »

tegeek wrote: post #54
bglazer wrote: post #42

I'm working on a side project now that will eventually be an open source project. I think it could benefit a lot of people. My problem is that I have a full time job. When I come home at night I want to cook dinner, run, socialize, drink a beer with a friend, or work on an art project. I don't particularly want to configure Ansible or read the OpenVPN docs. At most I can get 3-5 hours of productive work per week on t…

I've been in this situation for as long as I can think of. But lately I've found something which is working for the time being. I don't use my car to commute to office. It takes 25 minutes via public transport (one way), so I use that time and build all the complex logic/data structure/algos in that time for my hobby project. Cooking doesn't break my mental loop. So I keep thinking & solving things regarding my hobby…

My experience is I am more focused while on public transit because I feel a sense of urgency. "I am gonna be interrupted in N mins and I need to finish X". It works sort of like pomodoro technique I guess. Utilizing those time slots is key to achieving side goals (or our real goals?) in a busy life. :-D

Re: Side projects

#102

Post by Lawtonfogle »

xhrpost wrote: post #94
joshdotsmith wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of side projects and learning to cook, I'm working on a side project that helps people learn to cook. Happy to share if interested.

Does it happen to help with the attitude or process of cooking? It's probably the bachelor mentality in me but I honestly just hate cooking. The amount of time (purchase food, prep, cook, clean pots/pans) for a 5 minute meal when I could be, ya know, working on a side project, seems ridiculous. However, I do feel like I could eat a little more natural and better if I did cook more.

As someone who likes to cook but generally doesn't, I feel the problem is how this scales per mouths to feed.

Cooking for 1 or cooking for 5 doesn't involve much increase in the total time (5 sets of eating dishes instead of 1 and slightly larger cookware to clean) and has a slight decrease in price per mouth (buying food items in bulk is cheaper). Now I could cook big meals for just myself to eat 5 times along with buying in bulk, but this means a significant loss in freshness and variety (eating the same meal 5 times a week, 4 of those reheated, and bulk items mean the same core ingredients for multiple weeks). Finally top this off with the notion that more mouths to feed tend to mean more bodies to help cook/clean, and I personally find that this tips the scales to making cooking far less worthwhile when you are doing it by yourself for yourself.

Re: Side projects

#103

Post by burntsushi »

robotkilla wrote: post #100
burntsushi wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This post is nearly a mirror image of myself! I tend to relax on the major holidays (xmas and nye), but everything else is the same. My brain is constantly working on some problem that is of interest to me. I have time to do side projects because that is what I do for fun . I have the same sleep schedule as you (I work in Cambridge, MA but live West of 495), although I'm not sure if I'd voluntarily choose it. Working…

I have a ten year old daughter - nothing has changed yet, she's as bad as i am ;)

That's fantastic. Gives me hope! :)

Re: Side projects

#104

Post by seiji »

christopherDam wrote: post #83

I need some advice. How other great people find the ideas for side project? I would greatly appreciate if any one help me to know how other get some cool ideas.

Don't start with an idea, start with a problem. Work on fixing the problem. Grow from there.

Re: Side projects

#105

Post by alexfarran »

revorad wrote: post #30
antirez wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately I've no good answer for your question, since I'm sponsored by Pivotal, but if we consider the percentage of open source software created, only a small percentage is sponsored. Many developers simply do it for free, as I did it in the first year of Redis developments, because I had an alternative stream of money to pay the bills. So, my point of view, is that the IT ecosystem is broken and IT companies a…

patio11 has a good suggestion in this article (see the last section "A Brief Meditation on OSS") - http://www.kalzumeus.com/2015/01/28/design-and-implementatio...

This seems to be the way that commercial Wordpress themes are sold. 100% GPL licensed, but sold in the normal way. eg http://crowdfavorite.com/carrington-build/docs/faq/#license. It seems to be working.

Re: Side projects

#106

Post by robotkilla »

SyneRyder wrote: post #73
robotkilla wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

as someone who works on a lot of side projects: figure out where most of your free time goes and decide if you can sacrifice the hours you spend on those activities for side projects... and then actually do it. I watch very little TV. I have only a couple of friends that I see every few months max. I don't go to meetups, I don't use social media and I don't play a lot of video games. I can hardly stand to see a day g…

Whoa. Giving up friends & holidays for your side project is a really bad idea. Don't do this. Your side project is not worth being alone & unhappy for. I'm guilty of working Christmas & New Year, I'm guilty of ditching friends' parties to work on side projects. It rarely gets you further ahead on your project anyway, and can do more damage than you realize to friendships. You have to practice your social skills regul…

Good advice for most, but I was raised without holidays due to my birth religion. Now I'm a dirty atheist with no attachment (spiritual or traditional) to holidays and I have to admit that I really like it that way.

The lack of family is imposed, not chosen (see above: left strict birth religion).

The lack of friends is somewhat chosen, somewhat imposed. my best friend and his fiance move to another country recently, another good friend started dating a celebrity and moved to the west coast, and most of the other people whom I considered friends sort of just faded away.

I do live with my girlfriend though (who is also a happy shut in - we met randomly on the internet a year ago) - so I'm not in complete seclusion.

> things you create are ultimately for other people, and it's important that you understand people so you can create better things for them.

This is an excellent point, thank you for it.

Re: Side projects

#107

Post by TeMPOraL »

el_benhameen wrote: post #98
xhrpost wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it happen to help with the attitude or process of cooking? It's probably the bachelor mentality in me but I honestly just hate cooking. The amount of time (purchase food, prep, cook, clean pots/pans) for a 5 minute meal when I could be, ya know, working on a side project, seems ridiculous. However, I do feel like I could eat a little more natural and better if I did cook more.

It helps me to avoid recipes and instead come up with ideas based on my tastes and the things I have available. Going to the grocery store is then less about "shit, they're out of $ingredient" and more about "wow, the salmon looks really fresh this week". The actual act of cooking is the same--instead of focusing on following and mucking up someone else's recipe, I get to feel creative as I build something based on w…

That approach sounds like something coming out of experience. I hope to reach that level one day; right now my mind just blocks when it starts thinking about composing ingredients, and I revert back to the two or three recipes I know. I wish I started cooking as a kid, I was less anxious to experiment then.

Re: Side projects

#108

Post by Kronopath »

joshdotsmith wrote: post #87
rday wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2 kids, 3 freelance gigs (full time at this), a couple startups behind me (1 pivoted away, 1 still running). I would love to get 5 hours for an OSX app I really want to build. You really do have to shut out the rest of your life if you want to make a serious run at a project. When you are cramming a side project into you life, you really can "work" 80 hour weeks. The irritability you're experiencing will probably jus…

Speaking of side projects and learning to cook, I'm working on a side project that helps people learn to cook. Happy to share if interested.

Do share! I'm interested.

Re: Side projects

#109

Post by tjr »

dragonwriter wrote: post #26
norswap wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about dual licensing? People who don't pay get GPL, while those who pay get BSD/MIT?

Then one person pays, gets BSD/MIT code, and shares it freely. So, if you set the cost of BSD/MIT code for each release enough for one sale to fund the whole cost of the release, it might work.

I'm not sure it makes sense to have your second non-GPL license be BSD/MIT; wouldn't it be better to make it some proprietary license, licensing it specifically to the customer who pays for it?

But anyway; in my limited anecdotal experience, I don't know that all companies would bother sharing the BSD/MIT code anyway. They tend to be occupied doing their own work, not redistributing whatever open source software components they got from somewhere else.

Some companies might; but the point is that, I think that, no, they would not necessarily pay for it and then share it with everyone else.

Re: Side projects

#110

Post by rday »

whistlerbrk wrote: post #99
rday wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2 kids, 3 freelance gigs (full time at this), a couple startups behind me (1 pivoted away, 1 still running). I would love to get 5 hours for an OSX app I really want to build. You really do have to shut out the rest of your life if you want to make a serious run at a project. When you are cramming a side project into you life, you really can "work" 80 hour weeks. The irritability you're experiencing will probably jus…

I want to share something here since not having enough time is a theme for me. As the child of immigrants I have a guilt about spending money - overcoming this I'm starting to look as money as a way to buy more time, so I don't feel bad a number of things e.g. getting healthy takeout (I still cook because I like it), having my laundry done for me, even buying software, etc. It's just efficient. I don't know if anyone…

I try to do everything also (to a fault). I'm not first generation, but my wife's family has that mentality very ingrained.

At the moment, I'm lucky enough to have some cash. I can hoard it in the bank, or I can spread it around. You should certainly save and look out for your family. But spending money is part of how capitalism builds a society. Don't feel guilty. Feel good that you can help.

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