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How would you go about choosing that one project?

• enos_feedler 6y ago
  I would choose the one you can't stop thinking about. Or the one that many of the other side projects eventually lead to. If you feel similarly about all 100 side projects, probably none of them are worth doubling down on.
  • dasb 6y ago
    I can't stop thinking about creating my own operating system from scratch --similar to what Andreas Kling is doing with Sereneity OS-- but arriving at a usable state would probably take me 15 years, since I'm not even 10% as knowledgeable as Andreas. I often think I should forget about this project altogether and focus on a viable one.
• gredelston 6y ago
  This is the paradox of choice. In most cases, it doesn't pay to spend your time hemming and hawing about find the perfect project. It helps to just pick one, even if it's the stupidest idea of the lot. The alternative is to wind up as Burdian's Ass, who is equally hungry and thirsty, can't decide whether to eat hay or drink water, and so dies of hunger and thirst.
  • TeMPOraL 6y ago
    Yup. If you're really undecided, pick one at random, because at this point the marginal cost of thinking outweighs the marginal cost of being wrong. And if you choose wrong, you'll find out soon enough. Personally, I had a lot of projects I couldn't stop thinking about, but when I finally started working on them, I quickly realized it's a bad idea. The usual reasons were: a) I already found it done by someone else in a form that satisfies my needs, b) it became obvious that either the process or the outcome won't be as satisfying as I thought it would be, or c) after scoping it out, I realized I'm not in a position to invest the required amount of time and effort. Abandoning a side project early is not a bad deal. Your research and thoughts put into it stay with you forever, and it often happens that you'll get secondary value from them on some other endeavor.