It’s important to ask what you should be working on. But since most side projects are abandoned — is that even the right question to start with?
If you’re not pushing your work beyond the finish line, how do you know whether it’s good or bad? The excitement fades away, and you start questioning — is this a wrong idea?
I want to tell you — you should keep working on your wrong ideas.
But why!?
I don’t know — maybe I’m an idiot. An idiot who knows he’s not going to create something new or revolutionary.
But I enjoy the process of creating software. The age of AI has only fueled that passion further.
Now, I can clone a great open-source library, and within a few minutes of clauding gives me gold.
I love recreating projects to understand what’s going on in the creator’s mind — why they made certain trade-offs, and why some approaches won’t have worked if I were building it myself. Those “aha” moments are addictive.
My point is: now there’s one less reason to quit. If you get stuck, you can easily look at others’ implementations and get unstuck.
Previously, it used to be so hard to even understand how a project was structured. Now, it’s a piece of cake.
If you’re curious and know how to use AI well, you can sit for hours and watch your project take shape — something that used to take ages and kill your flow.
What is a wrong idea?
You tell me. I won’t judge, and neither should others.
Without hard work, there are no wrong ideas.
The good “wrong ideas” are the ones you discover, not the ones you ruminate on.
And you discover them through the sheer amount of hard work you put in. You can’t just come on day 4 and decide it isn’t worth it
Over emphesize it
If you’re a builder, overemphasize the output of your work. I have made the mistake of being too rational about it — it doesn’t pay as much as overstating it.
Remember, overemphasize doesn’t mean being blind about it. Always critique your work.
This is the path to developing self-belief.
Sure, some ideas will be garbage — but you should still complete them. Why miss out on the return on investment?
The wrong ideas teach you more than the good ones ever will.
And that’s what matters the most — sustain, iterate, and be in the flow.
Build crapy things and iterate
I don’t expect myself to create my best work on the first go. If I did, I’d be lucky — but also doubtful.
Like this blog post itself — I know it has many flaws, but I wanted to get it out. “I’ll do it later” usually means I’ll never do it.
This isn’t written in stone, so I’ll keep updating it whenever I find something I don’t like.
But the mantra is clear:
It’s not crappy if you’re still rolling the dice. It’s crappy when you stop.
Thik about the antidote
Who are you doing all this for? At least let it be for yourself.
People might not use what you build. Build for yourself.
My writing might suck, and people might not read it. Write for yourself.
If judgment is your problem, then building for at least yourself is the solution.