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Comment by the_only_law | Hacker News Reader

I get disappointed when I see someone build something cool, but maybe not commercializable, and the comments come in asking: “yeah, but how are you planning to monetize it”.

90% of the side projects I embark in are likely to have no commercial value, but are pretty cool, at least I’d like to think.

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Hell yeah. I literally can’t be bothered to “finish” something once I’ve solved the difficult parts. I’ve got quite a library now of software that’s 80-90% complete. Almost all of them die in the final “clean up styling,” and “adjust branding” phases because they’re so fucking boring to me. Is it a waste? Oooh hell no! It’s getting to the point where I’m searching my own fucking code for answers. It’s great. “Oh yeah, I totally did setup, configure, and deploy an custom search engine built on Lucene” or “oh yeah I totally spent four months researching encryption algos, which one was best for the time/CPU budget I have? Let me check.”

It’s nice to hear others are the same or at least enjoy the journey. Maybe this will be the motivation I need to starting releasing them “as-is” which is more of a “journey included, destination not determined” state...

It's more about the journey than the destination on most of my side projects. Yes, the end product is meant to be useable by me (hence me expending the effort). However, I tend to learn new build techniques or it's a chance to hone a skill. Do all of my solder joints look the same/consistent (hopefully good)? Did I really need to make a biscuit join? Could I have make a cleaner cut into this plastic using a hot knife vs a spinning blade?

You know non-software nerdy hacker stuff.

and the ever-popular snide reply: "you have too much free time on your hands"

"You have too much time undevoted to the advancement of capitalism on your hands" just doesn't roll off the tongue as well, I suppose.

There's also the counter-perspective of "wow, you must be rich" which is something I feel (but don't say) when someone has enough free time to build anything frivolous. I work full-time and freelance on the side because I have no financial support system and it's terrifying. I've burnt myself out a couple times and the only reason I kept going was the inevitability of financial ruin.

Hey, if you had fun building the thing your time was not wasted.

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