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I was stuck on a side project for 5 years – how I finished it (2020)

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Re: I was stuck on a side project for 5 years – how I finished it (2020)

#31

Post by pezzana »

> A few months ago, I stumbled upon this post where someone spent 9 years making a shed. No knocks on them, but it’s not even a particularly good-looking shed.

This is the link:

https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY/comments/czg04y/shed_is_finally...

Although it did take 9 years from start to finish, nothing was done for most of that time. It sat as a slab for a few years, then as a half-finished skeleton for a few more. In between, life happened.

There seems to be two contradictory lessons here:

1. Actually work on your project or it will never be finished and it will haunt your dreams. Don't just review the plans - actually take action to close the gap to shipping.

2. If you keep working on your project without shipping, it will haunt your dreams and mutate from cake into shed and you will be sad.

That mutation in (2) can happen through a mis-estimate of the resources required to finish a cake:

> ... Shed projects seem to start out with an underestimate. You think it’s only going to take a few months, and then it drags into a year. But you acquired some new skills in the meantime, so then you think it’s really just a month more. But then it didn’t pan out the way you envisioned it, so you want to spend a few months redoing it.

But there are also times when you're certain you're working on a cake, but it turns into a shed anyway. One way to find yourself there is if you under-specify the cake.

One way to prevent this from happening is to practice Readme-driven development,[1] or some other approach that forces you to clearly state what's in scope and what is not, and who is the intended audience.

[1] https://tom.preston-werner.com/2010/08/23/readme-driven-deve...

Re: I was stuck on a side project for 5 years – how I finished it (2020)

#32

Post by eternalban »

giomasce wrote: post #23
shard wrote: post #7

Not sure if the OP is the author, or if the author will read this, but I ate the shed, and at first found it delightful, but then got an annoying bit stuck in my teeth. The Guide first says "The results of the spell are supposed to be independent." And I took that at face value, since I figured this is an educational page rather than a page of brain teasers and trick questions. But then when it asks "in my last 100 c…

My problem with that question is that it seems to imply that of something has a very small probability to happen, then it cannot really happen. This is false. The probability of me generating my precise GPG or writing this exact comment were ridiculously small before these events happened, and still they happened. Or, from another point of view, it's worthless to ask what is the probability of something that has alre…

That's not really correct. There are more bits of information regarding the event of your comment than the spell. It was observed you read the GP. Your profile is read, interests noted. Your comment history gives us probability of your making a comment today. All in all, pretty sure a much higher probability than "very small" in the sense that you intended it.

Re: I was stuck on a side project for 5 years – how I finished it (2020)

#33

Post by greatpostman »

nonbirithm wrote: post #15

You can still believe that a project which becomes a shed is desired by an audience, however niche, and not care as much about getting popularity, which gives you an excuse to keep working. You can let a project that you still get enjoyment out of consume the rest of your life. It's scary that the thing you willingly do to get away from obligation and 9 to 5 work can be at the same time the most fulfilling and most d…

Wow this captures a lot of my current dilemma.

Re: I was stuck on a side project for 5 years – how I finished it (2020)

#34

Post by godshatter »

I'm working on a project that's been going on at least 10 years, not sure exactly how long. It's an engine to play the game of go that uses something like genetic algorithms to produce generations of "go-bots". I have sets of go-bots fighting each other for dominancy pretty much 24/7 now. Deepmind and alphazero have nothing to worry about, though. I play them against the gnugo program as a test of their worthiness so I can see if they are improving or not. The best of them can win 1 or 2 games in a hundred against the gnugo program even when given 20 stones to start with. They don't actually look ahead any moves, though, they just look at the state of the board and figure out where they want to play next based on weightings for different things, so it's maybe not as terrible as it sounds. I'm pretty sure that the top go masters are sleeping like babies not worrying about my program at all, though.

Anyway, I didn't start this as a project I was going to sell or even one that had a defined deadline, it's a hobby. I've learned lots of things along the way. I think of it as a nice wooden contraption I'm building that I sand and polish as I go. I recently (early this year, I think?) rebuilt my bots dna based on what I'd learned about how the last batch fared. Every day I come home and see how they did against gnugo and make sure the scripts have enough commands to perform so I can let them do their thing without intervention. I work on other projects but still keep this one going because I enjoy it. My "goal", such as it is, is to evolve a bot that can beat gnugo more than 50% of the time on an even playing field, without looking down any sort of move tree.

So this is my shed, I guess.

edit: grammar

Re: I was stuck on a side project for 5 years – how I finished it (2020)

#35

Post by felipemnoa »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #27
sigmonsays wrote: post #13

i just built a shed. I wanna know in depth how they built it to take 9 years. Nobody? =P

Not OP, but I started my shed (I think) 8 years ago. Year 1: dig, place and level footings. Put down floor joists: it's just a little 8x10 shed, so they're 2x4's Year 2: find some scrap 3/4" plywood left over from another project for a floor. Realize that it'll just get wet and rot if placed, so leave it where it is. Instead frame and raise the walls. Year 3: realize that you should have built the south wall a bit hi…

I love your story. Almost reminds me of me and some of my projets.

Re: I was stuck on a side project for 5 years – how I finished it (2020)

#36

Post by NicoJuicy »

donatj wrote: post #30
NicoJuicy wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cloud DB with encrypted columns is not enough? ( Other options exist)

If I'm going to do it, I want it in a way where it's encrypted per-user, using something not stored in the database like a client side hash of their password or something. I don't want the possibility a miswritten SELECT potentially revealing anything. I don't want to be able to read their data, at all.

Normally that would be a salt or a certificate. No?

It protects against rainbow tables. So I'm not sure sure why you wouldn't go down that road.

Re: I was stuck on a side project for 5 years – how I finished it (2020)

#38

Post by f0e4c2f7 »

godshatter wrote: post #34

I'm working on a project that's been going on at least 10 years, not sure exactly how long. It's an engine to play the game of go that uses something like genetic algorithms to produce generations of "go-bots". I have sets of go-bots fighting each other for dominancy pretty much 24/7 now. Deepmind and alphazero have nothing to worry about, though. I play them against the gnugo program as a test of their worthiness so…

I feel like you must have seen it given that you're working on this but just in case, the AlphaGo Documentary (2017) was quite good. I bet you'd enjoy it.

Re: I was stuck on a side project for 5 years – how I finished it (2020)

#39

Post by motoxpro »

nonbirithm wrote: post #15

You can still believe that a project which becomes a shed is desired by an audience, however niche, and not care as much about getting popularity, which gives you an excuse to keep working. You can let a project that you still get enjoyment out of consume the rest of your life. It's scary that the thing you willingly do to get away from obligation and 9 to 5 work can be at the same time the most fulfilling and most d…

Very beautifully put.

Re: I was stuck on a side project for 5 years – how I finished it (2020)

#40

Post by motoxpro »

shard wrote: post #7

Not sure if the OP is the author, or if the author will read this, but I ate the shed, and at first found it delightful, but then got an annoying bit stuck in my teeth. The Guide first says "The results of the spell are supposed to be independent." And I took that at face value, since I figured this is an educational page rather than a page of brain teasers and trick questions. But then when it asks "in my last 100 c…

I had the exact same experience. Stopped right then and there. Great concept though and awesome work!
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