Notes on shipping side projects, slowly

Small enough to finish

The hardest part of a side project isn't the building. It's the scope.

Every side project I've ever finished had one thing in common: I cut the idea in half before I started, and then in half again. Anything that survived was something I could actually carry to the end on a free Saturday.

The "one good page" rule

Lately I've been using a simple test: if I can't finish a single, good page of the project in one focused afternoon, the scope is wrong. Not the idea — the scope. There's almost always a smaller version of the same idea waiting.

Done is the feature

"Done" is what turns a side project into a thing that lives in the world. A finished, modest version teaches you ten times more than a half-built ambitious one. And it leaves you with energy to start the next thing — which, more than any tool or framework, is what keeps the practice going.