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sillysaurusxHNSource author
Lessons learnedExperience excerpt · English

Both parts are important

… Both parts are important. Step one means that you won’t take it personally if you fail. You won’t be disappointed because you weren’t hoping for anything to begin with. Step two means you’ll actually put in effort where it counts, by analyzing the situation dispassionately. Do those things that people say are important. Market your work. The best marketing I’ve found is to make entertaining HN and Twitter posts (seriously; 100% of whatever small amount of notoriety I have stems from these two sources). More importantly, design your apps to be gathering money. That means doing something that most people would call "a dick move". Perfect example: I just tried a 3d scanner app called prodAR. There was no tutorial, some of the interface was broken, it didn’t support screen rotation, and it demanded $30/yr before it allowed me to save my scan. I paid the $30. Why? Because it yields the best scans of any app I tried. It delivers quality where it counts, and wastes zero time anywhere else. This is the essence of being effective. Personally, I’m terrible at step two. …

Original discussionAsk HN: What do I do with my side projects?65 source comments · at import
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atommachinistHN

I’m trying to decide what I should do with my side projects as I find a job related to my degree. I could release some of them as open source and ask for donations, or release them as closed source and sell a license. I have invested a lot of time into them and am hoping to make at least a little revenue from them. Even if I don’t make any revenue, I think they will help me stand out in the job market. I think some of them would be a better fit for open source than others. Most of them would probably be more useful to power users than general users. I would be a little upset with myself if I give them away and get nothing when there is a chance to make some income. Either way, I’ve heard that marketing is important. Now that they are mostly done, this will probably be what I work on next. For some advice, I've been in contact with a successful independent developer. They attribute their …

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sillysaurusxHN

By the way, I was always pretty good about step one. The reason I’m decent at raising money for various causes is because I never have my hopes up to begin with. It always astonishes me that people are willing to, and I end up feeling grateful and take the responsibility seriously. This turns out to have protected me from the worst effects of seeking money: when people end up feeling entitled because you worked so hard and therefore you deserve it. I’ve seen this firsthand in various people in my life (especially one particular extended family member) and they ended up feeling crushed when their hopes didn’t work out. Don’t do that either.

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fuzztesterHN

>Here’s the recipe for success, as far as I can tell: 1. You’re not going to make any money from your side projects. Internalize that, and believe it. 2. Do everything in your power to try to make money from your side projects. Like the Stockdale paradox: https://www.jimcollins.com/concepts/Stockdale-Concept.html I didn’t say anything for many minutes, and we continued the slow walk toward the faculty club, Stockdale limping and arc-swinging his stiff leg that had never fully recovered from repeated torture. Finally, after about a hundred meters of silence, I asked, “Who didn’t make it out?” “Oh, that’s easy,” he said. “The optimists.” “The optimists? I don’t understand,” I said, now completely confused, given what he’d said a hundred meters earlier. “The optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. …

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