Building after hours

By day my work has deadlines, clients and a team that depends on me. After hours I build my own things: a file-sharing service, a tool that turns PDFs into page-flip publications, a community for green energy. They are small, and some of them may never be more than that.

What they give me is room to be wrong. I can try a new storage adapter, rewrite an auth flow, or throw away a week of work, and the only person who pays for it is me. Most of what I know about shipping came from those nights.

If you are early in your career and wondering whether side projects are worth it, my answer is yes, with one rule: finish something small before you start something big.

Thanks for reading. If this made you think of something, write to me.