4 ms·

I should make a page of ‘Every Side Project I haven’t quite finished building since 2009’ But it would be so huge I can’t afford the hosting bill.

mickeyr 1y ago
And if you’re like me, you probably wouldn’t finish the list either…
alentred 1y ago
Preach. Sign me up when you finish this side project, I will list mine there too :)
- jonplackett 1y ago
  This is actually quite a good idea. SideProjectCemerary ? You upload your side projects’ data/github/seni-working-prototype, it performs a very quick ritualistic ceremony/blessing and buries it in a little marked grave. Visitors are free to go grave robbing if they wish.
  - butlike 1y ago
    I like the idea. The cemetery could be a large scrollable top-down map where the user could click on each headstone to get a synopsis and a link to where it's hosted.
  - ridiculous_leke 1y ago
    Would be cool to see what kind of side projects remain unfinished.
mfalcon 1y ago
And you probably won't finish that too :)
90s_dev 1y ago
Maybe someone can make a curated wiki page of people's unfinished and/or abandoned projects so everyone can put theirs there? (Oh wait, that's just github.)
- skeeter2020 1y ago
  except you said curated :) I actually love this part of github; it reminds me of the old internet, full of under construction Geocities pages and other half-baked projects. It's the polar opposite of today's bland, instagram-perfect same-same internet.
  - 90s_dev 1y ago
    Yep. I love finding someone's old project on github and going through it and especially comparing it to stuff they did release and seeing how it was merely a stepping stone and a way for them to learn something. That significantly influenced how I code and helped me to be okay with writing code that never sees the light of day, as long as it helps me get past something in a project that does.
  - MiscCompFacts 1y ago
    There are those “Awesome *” lists, such as “Awesome Python” or “Awesome Selfhosted”. Those are nice curated lists of repos on GitHub.
nonethewiser 1y ago
Good. I don't see this as a bad thing. Most people make side projects for fun, trying knew things, solidifying knowledge, etc. I mean, if you have a goal of starting a SaaS and you've spent years starting and stopping a bunch of projects that you never follow through on then yeah, you should improve on that. But that's not most people with a bunch of unfinished side projects.
- fm2606 1y ago
  Excellent point
skeeter2020 1y ago
I have - and still - struggle with this. My (unsolicited) advice: 1. just start anything NOW. Don't worry about getting organized or the correct order; just go. The act of working creates momentum; early on moving is more important than progress. 2. today's good enough > tomorrow's perfect. I found an OSS project for something I was going to build to help me capture "personal content". It's rough and not exactly what I was after but good enough. I've built (less than) half a system to help me with my job on top of PocketBase. Maybe someday I'll finish it (or even add another feature - #1 above has lots of ideas captured!) but until then I get value today. 3. Find something that has ongoing personal value: I help an animal rescue and pay the ongoing costs to run the system I built more than 10 years ago. Dropping $20/month to $5/month is possible but not a big enough motivation for a significant new version. The looming tech debt and support load might be over the rest of this year though! 4. Recognize that the incomplete part of side projects is a feature not a bug. Curiosity and exploration almost always end in specific dead ends, but the illumination gained can be used throughout your life. It's largely the act not the explicit output.
- 90s_dev 1y ago
  > just start anything NOW. Don't worry about getting organized or the correct order; just go Yes! Projects develop organically, with many stop gap solutions and temporary scaffolds built and torn down along the way. Rome wasn't built in a day.
  - butlike 1y ago
    It sounds like the parent comment is saying they may benefit from NOT doing this. They say they have a million unfinished projects, but if you just GO without a plan, sometimes the momentum fatally wanes when you hit a point where you realized you've painted yourself into a corner. I'm not saying a completely fleshed-out design document will help, but maybe a rough roadmap with milestone release dates would help keep the projects on track.
diggan 1y ago
Meh, just change your personal definition of "finished" and everything gets easier :) I too struggled with the feeling of not completing things, until I realized I didn't actually want to "finish" projects in the sense of "have paying users" but instead wanted to learn something new, try out some design/architecture or just solve a personal problem. So for the last few years, my "finished" ratio is much higher, as I got the value I wanted out of almost every project I started.

mickeyr 1y ago

And if you’re like me, you probably wouldn’t finish the list either…

alentred 1y ago

Preach. Sign me up when you finish this side project, I will list mine there too :)

jonplackett 1y ago
This is actually quite a good idea. SideProjectCemerary ? You upload your side projects’ data/github/seni-working-prototype, it performs a very quick ritualistic ceremony/blessing and buries it in a little marked grave. Visitors are free to go grave robbing if they wish.
- butlike 1y ago
  I like the idea. The cemetery could be a large scrollable top-down map where the user could click on each headstone to get a synopsis and a link to where it's hosted.
- ridiculous_leke 1y ago
  Would be cool to see what kind of side projects remain unfinished.

mfalcon 1y ago

And you probably won't finish that too :)

90s_dev 1y ago

Maybe someone can make a curated wiki page of people's unfinished and/or abandoned projects so everyone can put theirs there? (Oh wait, that's just github.)

skeeter2020 1y ago
except you said curated :) I actually love this part of github; it reminds me of the old internet, full of under construction Geocities pages and other half-baked projects. It's the polar opposite of today's bland, instagram-perfect same-same internet.
- 90s_dev 1y ago
  Yep. I love finding someone's old project on github and going through it and especially comparing it to stuff they did release and seeing how it was merely a stepping stone and a way for them to learn something. That significantly influenced how I code and helped me to be okay with writing code that never sees the light of day, as long as it helps me get past something in a project that does.
- MiscCompFacts 1y ago
  There are those “Awesome *” lists, such as “Awesome Python” or “Awesome Selfhosted”. Those are nice curated lists of repos on GitHub.

nonethewiser 1y ago

Good. I don't see this as a bad thing. Most people make side projects for fun, trying knew things, solidifying knowledge, etc. I mean, if you have a goal of starting a SaaS and you've spent years starting and stopping a bunch of projects that you never follow through on then yeah, you should improve on that. But that's not most people with a bunch of unfinished side projects.

fm2606 1y ago
Excellent point

skeeter2020 1y ago

I have - and still - struggle with this. My (unsolicited) advice: 1. just start anything NOW. Don't worry about getting organized or the correct order; just go. The act of working creates momentum; early on moving is more important than progress. 2. today's good enough > tomorrow's perfect. I found an OSS project for something I was going to build to help me capture "personal content". It's rough and not exactly what I was after but good enough. I've built (less than) half a system to help me with my job on top of PocketBase. Maybe someday I'll finish it (or even add another feature - #1 above has lots of ideas captured!) but until then I get value today. 3. Find something that has ongoing personal value: I help an animal rescue and pay the ongoing costs to run the system I built more than 10 years ago. Dropping $20/month to $5/month is possible but not a big enough motivation for a significant new version. The looming tech debt and support load might be over the rest of this year though! 4. Recognize that the incomplete part of side projects is a feature not a bug. Curiosity and exploration almost always end in specific dead ends, but the illumination gained can be used throughout your life. It's largely the act not the explicit output.

90s_dev 1y ago
> just start anything NOW. Don't worry about getting organized or the correct order; just go Yes! Projects develop organically, with many stop gap solutions and temporary scaffolds built and torn down along the way. Rome wasn't built in a day.
- butlike 1y ago
  It sounds like the parent comment is saying they may benefit from NOT doing this. They say they have a million unfinished projects, but if you just GO without a plan, sometimes the momentum fatally wanes when you hit a point where you realized you've painted yourself into a corner. I'm not saying a completely fleshed-out design document will help, but maybe a rough roadmap with milestone release dates would help keep the projects on track.

diggan 1y ago

Meh, just change your personal definition of "finished" and everything gets easier :) I too struggled with the feeling of not completing things, until I realized I didn't actually want to "finish" projects in the sense of "have paying users" but instead wanted to learn something new, try out some design/architecture or just solve a personal problem. So for the last few years, my "finished" ratio is much higher, as I got the value I wanted out of almost every project I started.