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Ask HN: How do you decide what project to work on?

8 points by sown ↗ HN
I've been wanting to start a new, personal project but I can't make up my mind on what to do. I don't get to build new stuff at work. I work with kernel maintenance at work, and like systems work. I've been learning about web app engineering. ML seems neat and I covered the first unit of Professor Ng's ML course.

Part of my dilemma is how do I align my long term career goals with my free time? I'm pretty much behind the technology curve on anything new. At work, it's C on linux for embedded work and not much else. I should learn javascript, I guess, but I don't know what to do with it. I'm petrified about being obsolete in a few years.

How do you select a new project? It seems like everything I think of is already done and I don't know how I could do better.

5 comments

[ 4.5 ms ] story [ 21.3 ms ] thread
stephengillie
You could contribute to OSS. Or look around at github for inspiration. Or look for a non-technical cofounder who already has an idea.
itsprofitbaron
I'm going to tell you what I did when I was 14 (I had played with HTML from 12 but nothing else) and was just starting out.

I didn't care what I did as long as it was legal and made money from $0. The result was the first 'venture' I did was "forum boosting" - I literally was paid by forums owners to create fake accounts on their forums, and post on them.

Now, I'm not telling you to go and do forum boosting (even though its profitable some 8 years later) what I'm trying to say is, do you want to make money from it right now?

If YES, then who cares if someone else has done it or if its better. Look at Betamax Vs. VHS (amongst a ton of other examples) just build something that makes money and ensure everyone knows about it, who cares if its not as good or even just as good because if everyone knows about yours and not about the other just as good/better service, you win.

If NO, then get involved in some open source project(s) and when something you seem interested in appears, then do that.

If the answer is a mixture of the two, then you still probably should get involved in some open source project(s) so then when something does come along you find interesting then you can just do that.

Who cares if someone else has done it or you don't think you can do it better right now because, you may actually be undervaluing yourself and can actually do it better than those guys.

kape
+1

Go with your guts and just build it.

drickster
Every time I have a question like this, I like to just do a reset session on my life goals and what is I want to accomplish in the next 6 mo to a year. When doing this I try to let my brain roam free with ideas and not get caught up in the 'how' or 'what's possible' thoughts. Hopefully after a good hour session, some really great stuff will surface for you. Best o luck!
opminion
This question spans not only personal programming projects, but all sorts of spare time "hobby" projects and what politicos would refer to as "lifelong learning" in general.

What's he best use of my spare time an energy right now?

Counterpoint answer to others in his thread: Dijkstra's "Do only what only you can do", if you overcome the intimidating aspect of seeing yourself as uniquely positioned (not necessarily uniquely talented) might be the droid you're looking for.