If nothing else side projects consume time, so it must be able to hold your attention and focus. Therefore, it must be interesting in some way for you personally, otherwise you're just going to shelve it immediately.
As an example, the last side project I've worked on was a decompilation/reverse-engineering of a PlayStation game. I was inspired by existing projects such as Super Mario 64 decomp and REDRIVER2, so I picked a game of my childhood and started hacking. This somehow snowballed into stumbling upon an entire, seemingly unexplored field of software engineering (delinking), which I've leveraged to do many acts of outright heresy in the name of science. To me, this topic is like a hardcore puzzle, one that is intellectually rewarding to solve (plus, I get to melt the brains of any software developer I meet with it).
The point is, while a side project can be a lot of work, it isn't actually work. You're doing it not because you get paid for it, but because you want to. Find something that scratches your own itch.
When I look for an app solving a problem I have, and I don't find anything (or anything satisfactory), I like thinking about what it would take for me to write it. Usually I start a project, and never find time to finish it :-). But I don't lack ideas!
I like to use open source software. When I end up using a project that I find nice, I start contributing.
I like understanding how software works. When I use some cool software, I learn how it works. Some projects make it easy to write my own client, for instance: an IRC client, or a Mastodon client, etc.
I would say: write something you think you would use, and write it for yourself. At the very least it will be a good learning experience.
If it’s for money, side projects aren’t worth it. I went down this road for years, and DID make money, but ultimately it’s not worth it.
If it’s to learn, great! Start by solving problems you have. Doesn’t matter if it’s reinventing the wheel, solve it in a way you come up with yourself.
Here’s an example: I do our household budgeting on a spreadsheet, it’s okay but not very user friendly. So I can make a web-tool I can share over local IP so my partner who can’t spreadsheet can contribute. That’s a side project.
Also, do something different to your main job role. I work in web development all day, so my side projects are low level programming graphics projects, or game mods.
Hard disagree that doing a side project for money is not worth it. Almost all bootstrapped companies started this way. It should be self-evident by now that VC-driven "startup" is just one potential path to build a product, not the only way to start your own thing. The best gigs I've had in my career started as someone's side project that took off enough to become a company.
Even if your goal isn't to grow into a company, it is not always a difficult slog. My best side project accidentally made money. I wrote it for my kids, put it online, and forgot about it. As it was all client-side functionality, it was just a free static HTML page from my perspective. But 2 years later, I find out people had found it and were using it constantly, so I added some paid features, ran it for a couple years, and sold it.
I hard disagree, solely for the money is NOT worth it.
You’re much better off focusing down on your career and maximising your paycheque.
Doing it solely for money you will just burnout. A 40 hour week + life commitments + a side project to make money is not sustainable for anyone.
Doing a fun side project that somehow makes money is fine, but think of the overwhelming amount of failed side projects out there. Statistically it’s very unlikely your side project will make much money.
Yeah, you said that already. We already knew you disagreed, which is why I posted a dissenting opinion in the first place. That way, OP hears different perspectives and can make their own call.
Personally, I've seen way too much anti-employee politics and policy in the corporate world to trust that maximizing checks is right for everyone. I say that as someone who did that for much of my career, too. If you have ambition to do more, you should. If you are happy to just collect checks, you should do that. But people should decide for themselves because what burns one person out would make a different person thrive.
I more just mean solely for the money doesn’t quite work so well. I see your viewpoint regarding anti-employee politics and policy and agree the world is becoming quite anti-worker so can see where you’re coming from.
I’ve found the best approach is to reduce work hours per week/fortnight by 1 day, and spend that day on side projects and learning.
If you approach side projects with the intent to learn and share your creations, I think the money can follow.
That way you can still juice up your career, but potentially open up a diversified second income stream. If the finances look good, you can even reduce work hours and increase side project time
From experience majority of side projects that set out to make money, don’t make any money.
And the projects have to make a large amount of money to be better than a typical software developer salary.
Consider then that you’re probably already working 40 hours, where are you finding the time for a sustainable side project that generates income?
That takes months, years to get to any reasonable amount of income.
That being said, I have made money from side projects, I made 1/5 of my yearly salary in about 1 month of conception (from a software sale).
But that was a pure fluke, right place right time right tool right amount of luck. I’ve been making side projects for years, 9/10 of my projects lose me money lol
I would guess because with solid software engineering skills you can (could?) make more money consulting in the extra time to make money. I think that might have been true a couple years ago but now is exactly the opposite. Although side projects are not that "side" for the current unemployed.
I found my new project after facing endless distractions and trouble focusing on side ideas. I developed a tool tailored to my needs for deep work—a simple, distraction-free app that helps me set goals, block interruptions, and dive into focused work sessions. Finally, I could create a space to get real work done, and that’s how https://deepworkz.one/ was born.
I'll find a problem that annoys me and if I can't find an existing solution for it I'll just build it as a side project. For example, I recently built https://rockyai.me/ because I was annoyed with having to copy paste stuff into chat gpt all the time from my browser.
One simply doesn't find a side project.
If nothing else side projects consume time, so it must be able to hold your attention and focus. Therefore, it must be interesting in some way for you personally, otherwise you're just going to shelve it immediately.
As an example, the last side project I've worked on was a decompilation/reverse-engineering of a PlayStation game. I was inspired by existing projects such as Super Mario 64 decomp and REDRIVER2, so I picked a game of my childhood and started hacking. This somehow snowballed into stumbling upon an entire, seemingly unexplored field of software engineering (delinking), which I've leveraged to do many acts of outright heresy in the name of science. To me, this topic is like a hardcore puzzle, one that is intellectually rewarding to solve (plus, I get to melt the brains of any software developer I meet with it).
The point is, while a side project can be a lot of work, it isn't actually work. You're doing it not because you get paid for it, but because you want to. Find something that scratches your own itch.
When I look for an app solving a problem I have, and I don't find anything (or anything satisfactory), I like thinking about what it would take for me to write it. Usually I start a project, and never find time to finish it :-). But I don't lack ideas!
I like to use open source software. When I end up using a project that I find nice, I start contributing.
I like understanding how software works. When I use some cool software, I learn how it works. Some projects make it easy to write my own client, for instance: an IRC client, or a Mastodon client, etc.
I would say: write something you think you would use, and write it for yourself. At the very least it will be a good learning experience.
First off, for what purpose?
If it’s for money, side projects aren’t worth it. I went down this road for years, and DID make money, but ultimately it’s not worth it.
If it’s to learn, great! Start by solving problems you have. Doesn’t matter if it’s reinventing the wheel, solve it in a way you come up with yourself.
Here’s an example: I do our household budgeting on a spreadsheet, it’s okay but not very user friendly. So I can make a web-tool I can share over local IP so my partner who can’t spreadsheet can contribute. That’s a side project.
Also, do something different to your main job role. I work in web development all day, so my side projects are low level programming graphics projects, or game mods.
Hard disagree that doing a side project for money is not worth it. Almost all bootstrapped companies started this way. It should be self-evident by now that VC-driven "startup" is just one potential path to build a product, not the only way to start your own thing. The best gigs I've had in my career started as someone's side project that took off enough to become a company.
Even if your goal isn't to grow into a company, it is not always a difficult slog. My best side project accidentally made money. I wrote it for my kids, put it online, and forgot about it. As it was all client-side functionality, it was just a free static HTML page from my perspective. But 2 years later, I find out people had found it and were using it constantly, so I added some paid features, ran it for a couple years, and sold it.
I hard disagree, solely for the money is NOT worth it.
You’re much better off focusing down on your career and maximising your paycheque.
Doing it solely for money you will just burnout. A 40 hour week + life commitments + a side project to make money is not sustainable for anyone.
Doing a fun side project that somehow makes money is fine, but think of the overwhelming amount of failed side projects out there. Statistically it’s very unlikely your side project will make much money.
Yeah, you said that already. We already knew you disagreed, which is why I posted a dissenting opinion in the first place. That way, OP hears different perspectives and can make their own call.
Personally, I've seen way too much anti-employee politics and policy in the corporate world to trust that maximizing checks is right for everyone. I say that as someone who did that for much of my career, too. If you have ambition to do more, you should. If you are happy to just collect checks, you should do that. But people should decide for themselves because what burns one person out would make a different person thrive.
I more just mean solely for the money doesn’t quite work so well. I see your viewpoint regarding anti-employee politics and policy and agree the world is becoming quite anti-worker so can see where you’re coming from.
I’ve found the best approach is to reduce work hours per week/fortnight by 1 day, and spend that day on side projects and learning.
If you approach side projects with the intent to learn and share your creations, I think the money can follow.
That way you can still juice up your career, but potentially open up a diversified second income stream. If the finances look good, you can even reduce work hours and increase side project time
Why aren't side projects worth it if they're just for the money?
From experience majority of side projects that set out to make money, don’t make any money.
And the projects have to make a large amount of money to be better than a typical software developer salary.
Consider then that you’re probably already working 40 hours, where are you finding the time for a sustainable side project that generates income?
That takes months, years to get to any reasonable amount of income.
That being said, I have made money from side projects, I made 1/5 of my yearly salary in about 1 month of conception (from a software sale).
But that was a pure fluke, right place right time right tool right amount of luck. I’ve been making side projects for years, 9/10 of my projects lose me money lol
I would guess because with solid software engineering skills you can (could?) make more money consulting in the extra time to make money. I think that might have been true a couple years ago but now is exactly the opposite. Although side projects are not that "side" for the current unemployed.
I found my new project after facing endless distractions and trouble focusing on side ideas. I developed a tool tailored to my needs for deep work—a simple, distraction-free app that helps me set goals, block interruptions, and dive into focused work sessions. Finally, I could create a space to get real work done, and that’s how https://deepworkz.one/ was born.
I'll find a problem that annoys me and if I can't find an existing solution for it I'll just build it as a side project. For example, I recently built https://rockyai.me/ because I was annoyed with having to copy paste stuff into chat gpt all the time from my browser.
Identify a small but annoying issue and try to solve it through technology.
Also, make sure that you're interested in the technology or challenge, so that you get something out of it even if you don't see the project through
Will try to find one from now.