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I really enjoy my line of work, but sometimes the day-to-day work just isn't very creative so every few months I take some time to build a small project that ha

I really enjoy my line of work, but sometimes the day-to-day work just isn't very creative so every few months I take some time to build a small project that has zero potential to be a "startup". The latest is just a database of local parks that will be sortable by the various features (bbq grills, play grounds, etc). The official city website was terrible, I'll get to have the joy of using it because it was something I wanted, and I learned a few new things about WordPress which is what I work in for my primary job.

cableshaft 11y ago
I've done that with games. I've taken breaks from working on my big, long game to work on something I could knock out in a week. My most popular game ever, Proximity, was one such side project that I conceived, built, and released within a week. Jonathan Blow's talk on Deep Work also recommends doing that to recharge your creative batteries and help break up a long project, and mentions a couple side projects he worked on during The Witness: https://vimeo.com/94259578 https://vimeo.com/94259578
tyre 11y ago
This is really cool! Coincidentally, our company builds software for local governments. What website were you looking at? We don't do that specifically, but we're friends with proudcity.com who do city websites.
davidjnelson 11y ago
I love these and do them too. I built an app to search craigslist in 2007 across multiple neighborhoods and regions and plot the results on a map. This was roughly 6 or 7 years before Craigslist added these features I think. I found a great apartment with it, as did some friends. Fun, and learned some cool stuff. Another one was a Wordpress plugin for Facebook comments before Facebook released the official one and the existing ones were hard to use. People loved it, and again I learned a lot. Side projects rock!

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I really enjoy my line of work, but sometimes the day-to-day work just isn't very creative so every few months I take some time to build a small project that ha

by stevesearer 11y ago

cableshaft 11y ago
I've done that with games. I've taken breaks from working on my big, long game to work on something I could knock out in a week. My most popular game ever, Proximity, was one such side project that I conceived, built, and released within a week. Jonathan Blow's talk on Deep Work also recommends doing that to recharge your creative batteries and help break up a long project, and mentions a couple side projects he worked on during The Witness: https://vimeo.com/94259578 https://vimeo.com/94259578
tyre 11y ago
This is really cool! Coincidentally, our company builds software for local governments. What website were you looking at? We don't do that specifically, but we're friends with proudcity.com who do city websites.
davidjnelson 11y ago
I love these and do them too. I built an app to search craigslist in 2007 across multiple neighborhoods and regions and plot the results on a map. This was roughly 6 or 7 years before Craigslist added these features I think. I found a great apartment with it, as did some friends. Fun, and learned some cool stuff. Another one was a Wordpress plugin for Facebook comments before Facebook released the official one and the existing ones were hard to use. People loved it, and again I learned a lot. Side projects rock!