Why You Should Start a Side Project
January 4, 2025
3 min read
Back in 2022, I stumbled upon a PDF of the The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday. The book is structured to provide a new Stoic meditation for each new day. I kept this PDF on my desktop, but sometimes I would lose track of the page I was on or simply forget to read the day's meditation
At that time, I was just diving into React, and found myself stuck in tutorial hell building something that I didn't enjoy. One day, I had an idea, and decided to embark on this small side project. I thought, Why not build an app that displays the daily quote from the book based on the date? This tiny project would solve my minor problem and make life a little easier. A developer classic (I'm going to automate this task that takes 2 minutes in the first place but spend 20 hours building the automation)
Initially, I thought that was all it would do. But once I started building, I realized I could embed more Stoic content into the app. This led me down rabbit holes, figuring out how to make it all work. Not only was I learning React in a hands-on way and having fun, but I was also tackling challenges I wouldn't have encountered in regular coding tutorials.
Eventually, I launched the app, used it frequently, shared it with friends, and even promoted it online. Then life happened.
I got busy with work. There wasn't much time to build anything on the side, and honestly, who cares about your little side project anyway? The app sat neglected, gathering dust like the rest of my dreams and aspirations.
But then one fine day, I received this email:
There was a bug in the app, and a user reached out to let me know. At that moment, knowing someone else found my "silly little idea" useful felt incredibly rewarding. I dropped everything to fix the bug, ensuring that this user from Paraguay could continue their daily meditation.
What is the point I'm trying to make? Your ideas aren't dumb. There's probably a niche of people out there who will find what you build genuinely useful. Beyond that, the sheer act of creating benefited me in multiple ways—helping me learn a new tool, solving a personal problem, and simplifying life for strangers on the internet I’d never meet.
So I think it's imperative if you possess the skill to build something, you should actively involve yourself in building something-not necessarily something cool/fancy or groundbreaking, but something that serves you.
Moreover, side projects break the shackles of monotony of regular work. They sharpen your skills, keep you up to date with new developments, and give you a sandbox to experiment and create freely.
"Ya man that's cool and all, but I ain't got the time for all that, I got too much on my plate already"
I've been a victim of this myself thinking - I'm slogging my ass at work already and that's me working on my skills anyway, so Why take on more? Honestly, I don't really have an answer to that. But there's an inexplicable joy in having the ability to create something from the ground-up - moulding it to your vision and something that YOU have complete control over. Not your manager, the stakeholders, company targets, NADA, it's all YOU! You are the artist and I think that's really beautiful in a special way!
TLDR: Build something cool. Make time to build things you'll use and put it out there. If someone else find's it useful, great. If not, it was built just for you in the first place and that's what matters most!