Anyone here feels like they don't build anything? | Hacker News Reader

Anyone here feels like they don't build anything?

11 pointsendlessloops10 comments

I've been a software engineer for almost 10 years and looking back at my career I feel like I have not built absolutely anything. I've been working at corporations doing backend development which mainly involved maintaining existing services.

I don't code in my spare time as I'm too tired from work and need the space to recharge. I feel bad calling myself an engineer when I don't feel like I can build anything on my own or have any personal projects.

What should I do? What are some projects I could try that are less abstract in nature and involve building something tangible?

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You could reimplement little things/libraries that have been done before in other languages. I call it “tracing”, like drawing from a known image.

Even if it’s something you don’t particularly care about, you’ll be forced to translate some concepts between languages and that alone will teach you something. And the main benefit is you already know what the end result should be, so you can judge your solution on something concrete.

Some examples: implement cat, grep, find, small commands like that. Reimplement a logging library from one language to another. Create a tiny static site generator (with few features).

You’ll actually accomplish something tangible and you don’t have to suffer the weight of thinking up a new technique or tackling large unknown problems.

This is an excellent idea. I assign such problems to new engineers in my team, to help them develop good taste, capacity to persist, and to learn from good examples from around the world. The confidence boost after some new joiner completes a project is palpable.

I been a web developer for 25 years and most of the websites I've built have long since been replaced or deleted. I built things but none of them lasted. And the last couple of years at my previous job was doing maintenance: I would keep things going just a bit longer until they could be replaced by a new stack, which was frustrating.

Recently I've spent some time working on my own projects. They are very modest and have only a small audience, but it is immensely satisfying to build things I want to, that I control fully, and that will last as long as I want to keep them running.

What do you enjoy most about software dev? Open source is great for basically any area of software development, you could create some PRs to existing projects you find interesting. I'm a frontend dev but recently enjoyed learning about Deno and built a tiny blog using their Deno KV service, I'm now trying to built a super basic sandbox like codepen using Cloudflare Workers and KV.

If you're not a fan of serverless, fly.io or render.com are great for hobbyist projects.

Also ChatGPT can be great to help work out a project idea.

The only solution is to build stuff. Small, big, it doesn't matter, just do something. Soon it becomes a habit, and after a while, you have a nice portfolio of stuff.

I can give you ideas, or even invite you to work on some of my projects, but it will be best if it comes from something that you want to do.

A simple first step would be to brainstorm ideas. Write down 5 ideas of things that you could build. Then, for each one, write a paragraph of how you would accomplish it. Then throw out those that no longer interest you, add a handful of others, and repeat until you come up with something that you really want to work on.

Good luck, and have fun!

I used to build a new thing every week in college. Ironically, I was getting none of my school work done because I was focusing so much on my personal projects and learning to code.

These days, I get my job's work done, but I feel so uninspired in my work. I know the amount of work required to create a quality product, and I get discouraged by it. In some ways, it was easier to finish a project when I was recklessly hacking away at code without regard for safety or scalability

You don’t have to build anything.

Do build something from your own proclivity and inclination. Don’t feel that you have to build something to be called an engineer based on outside pressure and self-comparisons.

If You really want to build, just start. Pick small things that will make your life a little easier. Even if it seems like a silly idea, do it anyway.

Another alternative is to reach out to small NGOs and ask what you can do for them to help them digitalize their process. You would likely build something boring like a CRUD app for them but if it solves their pain points, it is worth your time.

Everyone builds something, even if that's just a list of regrets and misery.

I wouldn't worry about not building some app on your own. Most companies have teams to work in, so you aren't alone.

My comments adds nothing to this thread, but I've been thinking exactly this all day. Thank you OP making this thread.

I'm on the same boat with 4 YOE.

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