3 ms·

This is subjective, but my personal threshold for when "useless" is OK or not depends on what's going on in the rest of your life. If you are making a good liv

This is subjective, but my personal threshold for when "useless" is OK or not depends on what's going on in the rest of your life. If you are making a good living, your family is taken care of, etc. etc. then go ahead and make as much useless stuff, because empirically you are making good life decisions and your useless stuff is just fun - doesn't detract from value, or perhaps even helps you learn useful skills that translate into your money-making life. On the other hand, if you're having employment or financial problems of any sort, the last thing you should be thinking about is "useless" stuff, because there're indicators in your life that you should be focusing on how to make more value for yourself (by making things of value to others.) I guess that's the same for everything, not just useless projects. I'd have the same criteria for watching a lot of TV - fine if your life is on track, probably should stop if there are other problems!

egypturnash 5y ago
I have spent the past five minutes trying to come up with the politest way to say “I wanna smack your miserable Greyface ass with a copy of In Praise Of Idleness” and I have given up.
schwartzworld 5y ago
There's nothing wrong with having a hobby for the sake of it just being fun. But if you insist on thinking about everything in terms of money, realize how many well-paid programmers started out as hobbyists. Learning to create now can translate to big bucks later. For me, I build software for a living, but a lot of my hobby projects are completely useless to anybody but me. I build them in languages and tools that require me to think differently, and the new way of thinking influences the code I write at work. This has paid off in terms of career trajectory, for sure. There is a bonus, in that me being a better programmer means I can spend less of my time figuring out how to write it, which means more time with my family.

egypturnash 5y ago

I have spent the past five minutes trying to come up with the politest way to say “I wanna smack your miserable Greyface ass with a copy of In Praise Of Idleness” and I have given up.

schwartzworld 5y ago

There's nothing wrong with having a hobby for the sake of it just being fun. But if you insist on thinking about everything in terms of money, realize how many well-paid programmers started out as hobbyists. Learning to create now can translate to big bucks later. For me, I build software for a living, but a lot of my hobby projects are completely useless to anybody but me. I build them in languages and tools that require me to think differently, and the new way of thinking influences the code I write at work. This has paid off in terms of career trajectory, for sure. There is a bonus, in that me being a better programmer means I can spend less of my time figuring out how to write it, which means more time with my family.