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Ask HN: Have you ever felt like abandoning your side project?
I'm a novice developer with an year of industry experience. I don't find my day job "good enough" and for the past three months I have been working on an Android application as a side project. Along the way I've come to learn a thing or two about Android and mobile application development in general. However, after spending three months and endless hours in developing my appm I feel I've made a couple of bad choices in the app's design and implementation. I'm working on the app alone I'm not able to keep myself motivated enough to build it. I've been programming since I was fourteen and since then I've abandoned most of my side projects. Sometimes I feel its due to working alone. I'd be thankful if HN readers would share their experiences about any similar situations that they've faced, and share their anecdotes about keeping oneself motivate while working alone.
- mindcrime 13y agoWell, what's your motivation for building the app? Do you plan to make money from it? Build a company around it? Build subsequent apps as part of some big picture plan? Or do you just want to create a cool bit of tech for either self-gratification, or maybe "web credence", or "hacker cred" or whatever? Or is this just a learning thing, a platform for you to tinker with stuff while learning technologies that interest you? Or maybe you just want to make the world a better place... does your app help people find clean water, medicine, food & shelter, etc? Anyway, I'd say think hard about what you're trying to accomplish and why you started this in the first place. Once you understand your "why" then your motivation will probably become more apparent. Or maybe this little exercise in introspection will lead you to realize that your time would be better spent on something else after all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCQ6DV_3u1g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCQ6DV_3u1g
- theyeti 13y agoThanks a lot for support. After a bit of thinking I've come to realize that my motivation for building the app is to learn. And now I realize that I'll probably stop learning if I don't go all the way and complete it. That way hopefully I'll have fewer reasons to abandon my next app.
- coreymaass 13y agoFor me, the first thing I decide is why I'm building something. If it's for me, or to learn, then abandoning it is part of the process. Get out of it what you can and move on. Regardless, definitely get involved with other people. Join communities like JFDI. Follow authors like Nathan Barry. Form a mastermind group with other entrepreneurs, online or in your community. Email it to me, and I'll give you feedback!
- theyeti 13y agoThanks. I'll try to complete it as much as possible and will definitely reach out to the community for feedback.
- Aqueous 13y agoAlmost all of my side projects are eventually abandoned.