10 ms·

I'm surprised by all the negative reactions. Of course you're not going to be making anything substantial in a month (most likely). Instead, you'll learn to act

I'm surprised by all the negative reactions. Of course you're not going to be making anything substantial in a month (most likely). Instead, you'll learn to actually finish (or semi-finish) projects and ship them regularly. This is very much like One Game a Month (http://www.onegameamonth.com/ http://www.onegameamonth.com/). The idea is that write, learn, ship. It's nice. If you find that one of your projects takes off, or you really like it, then continue to work on it. Edit: grammar

jt2190 10y ago
The headline should be "The One Project Per Month Challenge." For me, the term "Side-Project" implies that the goal is to generate revenue, which is not the goal of this challenge. (Edit: phrasing)
- neogodless 10y ago
  Ironically I think the meanings are the exact opposite! "Project" means billable to me, while side-project means "hobby" or practice.
  - jt2190 10y ago
    I realize that this is becoming horribly pedantic, but the term "side project" is used a lot [1][2] to mean: "Someone who works full time but also builds a product on the side in the hopes that it will one day generate enough revenue that they can quit their day job." In the context of this thread (a complaint about negative comments) I thought I'd point out that the title had been changed from the original [3], and that the change could perhaps, for some people, cause them to think that this was about trying to generate income outside of their day job, when in fact it was about just doing some small projects on a timeline. [1] https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/do-not-end-the-week-with-nothing https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/do-not-en... [2] https://blog.asmartbear.com/working-startup.html https://blog.asmartbear.com/working-startup.html [3] HN doesn't generally allow for changes to the title. Why it was allowed in this case is unclear to me.
- kowdermeister 10y ago
  It might mean for you, but some people just enjoy creating stuff for fun with no intention to make money.
untog 10y ago
> If you find that one of your projects takes off, or you really like it, then continue to work on it. I think this is the thing. It's a slightly weird set of incentives for you to create a new project every month, irrespective of whether last month's worked out or not. I'd instead describe it as "12 months of ruthlessness". Start a project at the beginning of the month. Has it gotten anywhere by the end of the month? Do you have a result (and that can be an open sourced module as much as it can be a user-facing product)? If not, shut it down, start something fresh on month 2. But if you do have a result at the end of the month, keep at it.
- sesteel 10y ago
  I agree, I would prefer a milestone challenge where people put up demos/videos/blogs of their progress (same project or not). Maybe my first month's project is creating a site for people to share their progress towards whatever their goal is. If you think that is a good idea, vote me up :)
  - neogodless 10y ago
    I have a nearly five old idea that is very similar. Eventually someone will build it (well) and it'll become very beneficial!
    - sesteel 10y ago
      If you would like to work with somebody on it; hit me up. Or if you have some ideas you'd like implemented, let me know.
- coldtea 10y ago
  >I think this is the thing. It's a slightly weird set of incentives for you to create a new project every month, irrespective of whether last month's worked out or not. It's not always necessary to spell out everything. If one's 3rd month product proves widely succesful and shows great potential, they can always decide by themselves to continue on it and not go on to their 4th and next months' products. They don't need that spelt out in the challenge rules... And if someone is so dense that they do, there are slim chances that they'd be creating any great product anyway...
gravypod 10y ago
The problem isn't the idea of doing one thing per month. It's the implementation in my mind. I don't like when people just wander around programming aimlessly. I also don't like when we drop standards to meet deadlines (I've got a looooong history of doing this and I hate it, check my github). I think completeness, reliableness, and also practicality should be king. You shouldn't be focused on pumping out something 24/7 you should be thinking of how to make the best product that you can possibly make. These One Game a Month games are.... "creativly different". Now granted I couldn't do a game a month and I don't think I'll be able to finish my game even in my lifetime but I wouldn't feel right lowering the quality of the game I'd like to make to fit it into a month.
- coldtea 10y ago
  >You shouldn't be focused on pumping out something 24/7 you should be thinking of how to make the best product that you can possibly make. This is a false dichotomy. "Timely delivery" is also an essential feature of any product. Or, as they say, the better is the enemy of the good. While you're "thinking of how to make the best product that you can possibly make" others can just go ahead and make something. And that something, even if it's not the best product that one could possibly make, at least it would exist, then and there, and so would be million times more useful than any project that's still designed in someone's mind.
  - gravypod 10y ago
    When the product is contracted work*. When the work is for yourself, you set the due date. Setting the due date at 1 month is bound to yield unsavory results.
    - coldtea 10y ago
      >When the work is for yourself, you set the due date. Setting the due date at 1 month is bound to yield unsavory results. People have created profitable side projects in a couple of weeks or even less.
wheelerwj 10y ago
> Instead, you'll learn to actually finish This is the pretty close to hitting the nail on the head. In order to actually complete something, you have to learn to scope a project to be complete-able. This means you have to actually focus on your mvp and ship that and not let yourself get pulled into feature creep.
taneq 10y ago
As the old Apple folklore page says, "Real artists ship." It makes me think of the classic Glengarry Glen Ross scene. "If you want to work here, CLOSE!"
ben_jones 10y ago
Isn't learning maintenance, support, refactoring, testing, etc., also valuable (especially for beginners)? I think it's in the first page of Site Reliability Engineering that the majority of time and costs are present here, which might suggest it is a more valuable job skill. As a beginner I saw posts like this and felt like this was the way to go to learn as quickly and efficiently as possible. In retrospect I wish I had stuck with a single project, such as a comprehensive Django application, gotten a job in that domain to extend my skills, and then built from there.

jt2190 10y ago

The headline should be "The One Project Per Month Challenge." For me, the term "Side-Project" implies that the goal is to generate revenue, which is not the goal of this challenge. (Edit: phrasing)

neogodless 10y ago
Ironically I think the meanings are the exact opposite! "Project" means billable to me, while side-project means "hobby" or practice.
- jt2190 10y ago
  I realize that this is becoming horribly pedantic, but the term "side project" is used a lot [1][2] to mean: "Someone who works full time but also builds a product on the side in the hopes that it will one day generate enough revenue that they can quit their day job." In the context of this thread (a complaint about negative comments) I thought I'd point out that the title had been changed from the original [3], and that the change could perhaps, for some people, cause them to think that this was about trying to generate income outside of their day job, when in fact it was about just doing some small projects on a timeline. [1] https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/do-not-end-the-week-with-nothing https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/do-not-en... [2] https://blog.asmartbear.com/working-startup.html https://blog.asmartbear.com/working-startup.html [3] HN doesn't generally allow for changes to the title. Why it was allowed in this case is unclear to me.
kowdermeister 10y ago
It might mean for you, but some people just enjoy creating stuff for fun with no intention to make money.

untog 10y ago

> If you find that one of your projects takes off, or you really like it, then continue to work on it. I think this is the thing. It's a slightly weird set of incentives for you to create a new project every month, irrespective of whether last month's worked out or not. I'd instead describe it as "12 months of ruthlessness". Start a project at the beginning of the month. Has it gotten anywhere by the end of the month? Do you have a result (and that can be an open sourced module as much as it can be a user-facing product)? If not, shut it down, start something fresh on month 2. But if you do have a result at the end of the month, keep at it.

sesteel 10y ago
I agree, I would prefer a milestone challenge where people put up demos/videos/blogs of their progress (same project or not). Maybe my first month's project is creating a site for people to share their progress towards whatever their goal is. If you think that is a good idea, vote me up :)
- neogodless 10y ago
  I have a nearly five old idea that is very similar. Eventually someone will build it (well) and it'll become very beneficial!
  - sesteel 10y ago
    If you would like to work with somebody on it; hit me up. Or if you have some ideas you'd like implemented, let me know.
coldtea 10y ago
>I think this is the thing. It's a slightly weird set of incentives for you to create a new project every month, irrespective of whether last month's worked out or not. It's not always necessary to spell out everything. If one's 3rd month product proves widely succesful and shows great potential, they can always decide by themselves to continue on it and not go on to their 4th and next months' products. They don't need that spelt out in the challenge rules... And if someone is so dense that they do, there are slim chances that they'd be creating any great product anyway...

gravypod 10y ago

The problem isn't the idea of doing one thing per month. It's the implementation in my mind. I don't like when people just wander around programming aimlessly. I also don't like when we drop standards to meet deadlines (I've got a looooong history of doing this and I hate it, check my github). I think completeness, reliableness, and also practicality should be king. You shouldn't be focused on pumping out something 24/7 you should be thinking of how to make the best product that you can possibly make. These One Game a Month games are.... "creativly different". Now granted I couldn't do a game a month and I don't think I'll be able to finish my game even in my lifetime but I wouldn't feel right lowering the quality of the game I'd like to make to fit it into a month.

coldtea 10y ago
>You shouldn't be focused on pumping out something 24/7 you should be thinking of how to make the best product that you can possibly make. This is a false dichotomy. "Timely delivery" is also an essential feature of any product. Or, as they say, the better is the enemy of the good. While you're "thinking of how to make the best product that you can possibly make" others can just go ahead and make something. And that something, even if it's not the best product that one could possibly make, at least it would exist, then and there, and so would be million times more useful than any project that's still designed in someone's mind.
- gravypod 10y ago
  When the product is contracted work*. When the work is for yourself, you set the due date. Setting the due date at 1 month is bound to yield unsavory results.
  - coldtea 10y ago
    >When the work is for yourself, you set the due date. Setting the due date at 1 month is bound to yield unsavory results. People have created profitable side projects in a couple of weeks or even less.

wheelerwj 10y ago

> Instead, you'll learn to actually finish This is the pretty close to hitting the nail on the head. In order to actually complete something, you have to learn to scope a project to be complete-able. This means you have to actually focus on your mvp and ship that and not let yourself get pulled into feature creep.

taneq 10y ago

As the old Apple folklore page says, "Real artists ship." It makes me think of the classic Glengarry Glen Ross scene. "If you want to work here, CLOSE!"

ben_jones 10y ago

Isn't learning maintenance, support, refactoring, testing, etc., also valuable (especially for beginners)? I think it's in the first page of Site Reliability Engineering that the majority of time and costs are present here, which might suggest it is a more valuable job skill. As a beginner I saw posts like this and felt like this was the way to go to learn as quickly and efficiently as possible. In retrospect I wish I had stuck with a single project, such as a comprehensive Django application, gotten a job in that domain to extend my skills, and then built from there.