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It's OK to abandon your side-project

robbowen.digital

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

#31

Post by naitgacem »

dewey wrote: post #26
anonzzzies wrote: post #25

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.

I am now realizing an app I was working on had some "vulgar" function names in tests. they've been changed, but they're still there in version control. I just hope no one looks at the history of tests...

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

#32

Post by teh_infallible »

rootcage wrote: post #2

Grit and perseverance are often talked about as critical qualities in building something successful but knowing when to quit and start over is equally as important. Food for thought, that most "startup" gurus don't preach.

There’s a big difference between quitting a side project and giving up on a startup. With the startup, you have other people depending on you.

IMO, this is the real power you can leverage with a side project, the power to change your mind and bounce between completely different ideas. Those famous side projects that become companies? I’d bet that a lot of them were not the first or even third iteration.

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

#34

Post by teh_infallible »

naitgacem wrote: post #31
dewey wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I am now realizing an app I was working on had some "vulgar" function names in tests. they've been changed, but they're still there in version control. I just hope no one looks at the history of tests...

That’s hilarious :) The first time I worked on a project that used git, I got called out by a coworker for naming my branches after characters from Avatar, the Last Airbender.

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

#35

Post by bluebit »

tppiotrowski wrote: post #22
itqwertz wrote: 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...

That's called "a good problem to have". Seek monetization, funding, scale - popularity is a difficult thing to achieve in a world of infinite choice.

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

#36

Post by netbioserror »

I’m at a point where my hobbyist time in college has translated into excellent product development at work. And now I just…don’t want to write code in my free time. That muscle is getting suitably flexed and I am using my non-work hours for numerous other fulfilling purposes. Maybe one day when I have an entrepreneurial idea worth pursuing I can hit the grindset, but right now is the moment for other things.

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

#37

Post by dheera »

itqwertz wrote: 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.

I have a couple Github repos with a lot of stars and a bunch of pull requests and issues. I used to work actively on them.

However in the past 7 months I've been constantly being told at work that what I do isn't enough, without constructive feedback. Pretty much every single 1:1 is "you're not doing enough" and no action items, not enough compute to do what I should be doing, being left out of meetings, and no access to the data I need. Then the next meeting and another "you're not doing enough". Not one "what's blocking you" and "thanks for telling me, I'll get to work on helping you unblock that". It's so brain draining that coding is no longer fun and I've lost a lot of motivation to maintain things even outside of work.

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

#38

Post by bradley13 »

I had a "successful" side project (specialized ERP system). Successful, in that I actually sold and supported a couple of copies. I tried to make thus into a full-time job.

Mistake.

Selling, networking, marketing. Unless you actively enjoy those activities, which will take up most of your time it is just an ugly grind. Plus you lose income, because you aren't working.

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

#39

Post by charlie0 »

netbioserror wrote: post #36

I’m at a point where my hobbyist time in college has translated into excellent product development at work. And now I just…don’t want to write code in my free time. That muscle is getting suitably flexed and I am using my non-work hours for numerous other fulfilling purposes. Maybe one day when I have an entrepreneurial idea worth pursuing I can hit the grindset, but right now is the moment for other things.

I'm stuck on this exact same problem. I want to code, but no longer want to do it for the sake of learning. I'll happily code for something that will get me true ROI, but haven't found what to dedicate my time to. I've realized I need to continue to learn, but that no longer applies specifically to the coding domain.

I don't know if I can do it. Coding has instant feedback, most other things in life are not like that. The lack of instant feedback is demotivating.

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

#40

Post by DoreenMichele »

It's a fun post. I'm still -- after all these years -- a wannabe coder and I love it when a post about coding is something I can actually get through. Maybe someday I shall still grow up to be a real programmer and not just someone with a largely unused certificate in GIS who knows a little HTML and CSS.
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