For me, excitement comes partly from the tooling but also partly from the purpose. I have been tinkering with a Hacker News front end that adds creature comfort

For me, excitement comes partly from the tooling but also partly from the purpose. I have been tinkering with a Hacker News front end that adds creature comforts like thumbnail images, and I have refound some of that thrill you describe. I guess it’s the challenge of solving a problem, you know? And as you describe it, perhaps you’ve been up against the same old problems again and again. I pick my passion projects by what I myself want. I wanted a fancier HN, so I started http://www.thnr.net http://www.thnr.net . And I like to convert articles and blog posts to audio so I can listen on the go, so I started a project for that: https://github.com/timoteostewart/benson https://github.com/timoteostewart/benson . I guess I’m trying to inspire you to see what problems or challenges or friction you or friends and family have that tech may be able to solve (or at least alleviate). Best of luck, and hope you share what you decide to do here on HN.