Ask HN: How do you pick side projects?

1 pointbayeslaw2 comments

Now that Claude et al practically made building anything and greenfield projects in particular 100x faster start l, how do you pick side projects?

Do you pick more ambitious ones? Do you try crazy things that you wouldn't have dared before? Do you try all sorts of different ones in parallel? Do you pursue projects that can make you money? If so, do you ever validate or jump straight in?

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For learning, pick one that solves a problem just for you.

For research, pick an existing project and make it efficient.

For building a startup, pick one that solves a problem for many people and makes money.

The last one doesn't come without problems and now has just gotten even harder. It used to be 90% of startups failing.

Now it most likely is going to be 98% of startups failing.

I keep a list of project ideas as they come to me, and when I feel like starting a new one and don't already know what I want it to be, I go through that list and see what appeals to me.

I don't do side projects with a goal of commercializing them. They're hobbies.

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