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for me it's a challenge to keep my personal projects focused and structured a job helps with prioritization, as there's a driver towards a common goal and sche

for me it's a challenge to keep my personal projects focused and structured a job helps with prioritization, as there's a driver towards a common goal and schedule of course it can also be infuriating and frustrating. I took time off from January to about July of last year, but by April or May I was starting to get stressed out by aimlessness. But also financial fears, and a fear of falling way behind the market in terms of tech stack and relevancy. Also, in software development projects especially having multiple contributors can really help. i tend to stall on personal projects after some time with work (UI work especially) i simply don't want to do. EDIT: What I'd ideally like is a job ... but built around one my personal projects/interests. How great would it be to have a product manager, a UX person, other developers, etc focused on refining something I was passionate enough to start building myself? Which I guess is one way that people end up heading down the technical cofounder path, but that is a whole... thing. So far I've had some bad luck when my employer's interests intersected too closely with my own, because there's always the frustration that I'm putting aside my own creative ownership for someone else's who just happens to have the $$.

mym1990 4y ago
This feeling of aimlessness resonates well...I mean maybe I am just a sheep that needs to be herded. Maybe it is social media showing people doing these crazy achievements which make mine feel minimal. Probably it is a mix of many things.
- cmrdporcupine 4y ago
  yeah... unfortunately github itself has become social media. between jobs i spent a lot of time putting stuff up there. mostly personal interest and none of it complete. but found myself turning it into a bit of a portfolio. which.... i dunno, it's sad. because i do those things for personal intellectual interest, but the job market penetrates so much that even that stuff gets captured. i hold out hope for once i can retire, and once kids are out of the house, have no mortgage, etc. then I'll be able to focus clearly enough on my personal projects hopefully in that context i'll make much better progress
  - mym1990 4y ago
    I do a lot of photography and for a brief moment I found myself taking pictures mostly because I wanted to put it on IG, I caught myself and now take less pictures, but do it for what I think is arguably a better reason...which is just creating for the sake of creating!
earthling8118 4y ago
For me it is solely a financial motivator. I've not had any reason to expect that jobs will keep my skills marketable or allow me to develop true knowledge in a relevant tech stack. Being away from them is the only reason I've been able to really foster much of anything. Yes, there is part of working for a larger organization that can put me in a position to use more resources in the pursuit but I've yet to find a position that truly made good use of my skillset and allowed me to grow. As it is most of my jobs have been a lost opportunity cost. I'd much rather work on something where I can develop myself alongside it.
brio09 4y ago
Those thoughts resonate a lot with me, thats how I thought of writing this article. 1) the drive towards a common goal 2) a group accomplishes more 3) ideally would want a job (time you are compensated for) that intersects with your interests. Building solo products appeals to me apart from consulting. But the "solo" in it is a bit tricky haha.
- mym1990 4y ago
  If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together, something, something :)

mym1990 4y ago

This feeling of aimlessness resonates well...I mean maybe I am just a sheep that needs to be herded. Maybe it is social media showing people doing these crazy achievements which make mine feel minimal. Probably it is a mix of many things.

cmrdporcupine 4y ago
yeah... unfortunately github itself has become social media. between jobs i spent a lot of time putting stuff up there. mostly personal interest and none of it complete. but found myself turning it into a bit of a portfolio. which.... i dunno, it's sad. because i do those things for personal intellectual interest, but the job market penetrates so much that even that stuff gets captured. i hold out hope for once i can retire, and once kids are out of the house, have no mortgage, etc. then I'll be able to focus clearly enough on my personal projects hopefully in that context i'll make much better progress
- mym1990 4y ago
  I do a lot of photography and for a brief moment I found myself taking pictures mostly because I wanted to put it on IG, I caught myself and now take less pictures, but do it for what I think is arguably a better reason...which is just creating for the sake of creating!

earthling8118 4y ago

For me it is solely a financial motivator. I've not had any reason to expect that jobs will keep my skills marketable or allow me to develop true knowledge in a relevant tech stack. Being away from them is the only reason I've been able to really foster much of anything. Yes, there is part of working for a larger organization that can put me in a position to use more resources in the pursuit but I've yet to find a position that truly made good use of my skillset and allowed me to grow. As it is most of my jobs have been a lost opportunity cost. I'd much rather work on something where I can develop myself alongside it.

brio09 4y ago

Those thoughts resonate a lot with me, thats how I thought of writing this article. 1) the drive towards a common goal 2) a group accomplishes more 3) ideally would want a job (time you are compensated for) that intersects with your interests. Building solo products appeals to me apart from consulting. But the "solo" in it is a bit tricky haha.

mym1990 4y ago
If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together, something, something :)