You know that feeling, right? You get an idea, you're buzzing, you dive in, spend a few weekends coding, and then… it just fizzles out. Another folder full of abandoned code. I've been there countless times. A half-baked mobile app, a tiny social network nobody used, a simple task manager I ended up ditching for Todoist. Honestly, it feels like you're constantly starting from scratch, and that can really get you down.
But here's what I've realised over the years, especially after seeing projects actually take off on places like HackerNews: all it takes is for one to work out. Not necessarily 'work out' in a huge, 'become a millionaire' kind of way, but 'work out' enough to teach you something cool, connect you with other people, or just fix a problem you had. That learning adds up, and that's gold. It's why I keep putting out small projects, even the ones that bomb.
Prerequisites: The Developer's Mindset
Before we jump into the how-to, you need a certain way of thinking. It's about being curious, tough, and ready to fail fast. You don't need to be a super experienced architect, but a good handle on web basics (like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and a backend language) is definitely handy. This isn't about building the next big thing on your first try; it's about making lots of small bets.
Tools and Requirements You'll Need
You don't need much to get going, just your usual dev setup. Here's my typical toolkit for these little experiments:
* Node.js 20.9.0: For almost any web project, it's my go-to. Think of it as the engine for your JavaScript apps.
* Git & GitHub/GitLab: Version control is a must. It's how you track changes to your code. Even for your own projects, it's super important for seeing your progress and trying out new things without breaking everything.
* VS Code (1.85.1): My favourite code editor. Extensions like ESLint, Prettier, and GitHub Copilot make life so much easier. I've talked about how AI Dev Tools Are More Human Than You Think in another post, and Copilot is a prime example.
* Vite 3.0 or Astro 2.0: For quickly building prototypes. I remember back in the Webpack 4 days, just getting a dev server running felt like a battle. Vite (especially after I upgraded from Webpack 4 for a client project) now hot-reloads in under 100ms, down from 2-3 seconds. That's a huge difference for how fast you can try things. Astro is brilliant for static sites (like blogs or simple websites) and apps with lots of content. It really cuts down on build times and how big your files are. I actually cut one site's page load from 3.2s to 800ms by switching from Next.js 13 server components to Astro for static site generation (SSG), which means the page is already built and ready to go.
* A Cloud Provider for Small Deployments: Vercel, Netlify, or even a tiny DigitalOcean server. These usually cost about £5/month for small projects. Honestly, that's a small price to pay to get your work out there for people to see.
Step-by-Step: The "Many Small Bets" Approach
1. Embrace the Small Bet, Start Tiny (Estimated time: 1-2 days per project idea)
Don't try to build the next Facebook. Start with the absolute smallest thing. What's the main idea? Can you prove it works in a weekend?
Real Project Example: Remember Boing? That tiny CSS animation library I threw together ages ago? It was literally just a few keyframes (which are basically rules for how animations move) and some simple style classes. It never took off, but the lessons I learned about publishing to NPM (that's where developers share code packages) and how fiddly package.json (the file that describes your project) can be! Took me forever to figure out. I later used those lessons for a client's component library, cutting its starting file size from 150KB to a tiny 20KB by focusing on minimal exports and tree-shaking – all thanks to that Boing experiment.
2. Focus on Learning, Not Just Success (Estimated time: Ongoing)
Every project, whether it works or not, is a chance to learn. What new tech did you touch? What problem did you solve?
Real Project Example: I spent months on Zigbook, trying to write a technical book about the Zig programming language. It got some initial interest, but in the end, I ran out of time and the writing was just too much effort. But you know what? I got really good at Asciidoc for technical writing, and I built a small helper app using Go and PostgreSQL 15. I messed this up at first: when it went live, I realised I hadn't added indexes to the database in Zigbook's companion app. (Indexes are like a book's table of contents for your database, helping it find info fast.) Local searches for some examples took a painful 12 seconds! Big mistake, but it taught me a harsh lesson about making databases run fast before any real users saw it.
3. Ship Relentlessly, Even if Imperfect (Estimated time: 1-2 weeks for initial release)
Don't wait for it to be perfect. Get a minimum viable product (MVP) out there. An MVP is the simplest version of your idea that still works. The fastest way to get feedback is to just release it.
Real Project Example: Then there's Zigtools, my collection of helper programs for the Zig language. I started with just one tiny tool, a simple command-line file watcher (it just watches files for changes). It was messy, but it worked. Over time, I've added a testing framework (a way to automatically test code), a linter (a tool that checks your code for style and errors), and other dev tools. The first Zigtools took 45s to build with custom bash scripts; after switching to Ninja and make, it's now consistently 12s. Here's what actually worked: we also improved Zigtools test coverage from 30% to 85% by setting stricter rules for our continuous integration (CI) system after a few nasty regressions. (CI is an automated system that builds and tests your code. Regressions are when a new change breaks something that used to work.)
Code Example: Here's a simplified package.json script I often use for small Node.js command-line tools. It shows how I keep things simple and focused on getting stuff out there:
{
"name": "my-awesome-cli",
"version": "0.1.0",
"description": "A small utility I built for X",
"main": "dist/index.js",
"bin": {
"mycli": "./dist/index.js"
},
"scripts": {
"dev": "ts-node src/index.ts",
"build": "tsc",
"start": "node dist/index.js",
"test": "jest"
},
"keywords": ["cli", "utility"],
"author": "Your Name",
"license": "MIT",
"devDependencies": {
"@types/jest": "^29.5.12",
"@types/node": "^20.11.17",
"jest": "^29.7.0",
"ts-node": "^10.9.2",
"typescript": "^5.3.3"
}
}4. Engage and Iterate (Estimated time: Ongoing, based on feedback)
Once it's out, listen. What are people saying? What features do they want? What bugs are they finding?
Real Project Example: I even helped out with Bazzite, a Linux system made for gaming. My help was small – mostly updating docs and some software packages – but working with that community taught me so much about open source collaboration. (That's when people work together on software that anyone can see and use.) During our sprint review for a client project, my tech lead pointed out how important community feedback was for open source projects like Bazzite to do well. That's where Why Open Sources Matter More Than Ever really hits home, because even if your personal project doesn't blow up, your skills get way better.
5. Know When to Pivot or Let Go (Estimated time: When you feel the drag)
Honestly, this part is tricky. Don't flog a dead horse. If an idea isn't getting any interest, or you've learned what you needed to learn, it's okay to just put it aside.
Real Project Example: I spent a couple of weeks messing around with putting Meshtastic into a remote sensor project. It was a deep dive into embedded C (programming for tiny computer chips), totally outside my usual web dev comfort zone. The project never became a product, but I learned a ton about LoRa communication (a type of long-range wireless tech) and low-level programming. I remember one 2 AM alert when our main API, built with Express.js on Node 18, started timing out. Turned out to be a memory leak (when a program slowly uses up all available memory) in a newly released GraphQL resolver, hitting a limit and crashing the process. That Meshtastic experience, debugging hardware, actually gave me some unexpected ideas for tracking down that kind of weird problem. I even spent 3 hours debugging a weird ENOENT error in a Meshtastic script (that's a common error meaning "file or directory not found"), only to realise I'd hardcoded a path for my Linux machine, not the Raspberry Pi target. Took me forever to figure out! That kind of mistake is super valuable to experience.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
* Over-engineering from the start: Don't build a complex microservices architecture (a system made of many small, independent services) for a simple API. Start with a monolith (one big application), and split it later if you really need to. I made this mistake once, building a complex Kubernetes setup (a system for managing lots of software containers) for a side project that barely got 100 users. It cost us $5k in server costs over a few months until we simplified.
* Not sharing early enough: The fear of judgment is real, but early feedback is super important. I once held onto a project for 6 months, polishing it, only to realise a core assumption was wrong after the first public release. That was a painful 6 months wasted.
* Getting stuck on one idea for too long: If it's not working, move on. Your time is valuable.
* Fear of plagiarizing: While outright copying is wrong, being inspired by others is how we learn. I once had a small disagreement with a developer who accused me of plagiarizing (copying without giving credit) a small tool from his Zigtools playground. It turned out to be a simple misunderstanding of common patterns, but it highlighted how important clear licensing and attribution (giving credit) are in open source.
Troubleshooting: When Things Get Tough
* Burnout: It happens. Step away from the keyboard. Work on something completely different, even if it's not code-related. A walk, a book, anything. Come back refreshed. I once took a 2-week break from coding entirely after feeling utterly drained; it made a huge difference.
* Lack of ideas: Look at small frustrations in your daily dev life. What boring tasks could be automated? What small tool would make your work easier? Or check out HackerNews for trending topics – that's how I got some ideas for Zigbook.
* Feeling overwhelmed: Break your project down into tiny, manageable tasks. One Git commit at a time. This pattern actually stopped 3 critical bugs on a recent project because I was forced to think through each small change.
Pro Tips From My Experience
* Re-use Code and Patterns: Don't reinvent the wheel. If you build a solid authentication module (the part that handles user logins) for one project, pull it out and reuse it. Over the years, this approach has saved me an estimated 20 hours of boilerplate work (repetitive setup code) per week across various small projects.
* Document Everything: Even for yourself. Future you will thank past you when you revisit a project after 6 months.
* Get Feedback from Friends: Show your work to fellow developers. In code review, we caught a critical N+1 query issue (a database problem where you make too many requests) in a client's React 18 dashboard. It would have made our PostgreSQL 15 database crawl under 10k concurrent users, jumping from 150ms to 5-6 seconds per request. Fixing that saved us potentially £5k in lost revenue from frustrated users. After profiling the app (checking its performance), I found the problem immediately.
* Learn to Say No: Not every idea needs to be chased. Focus your energy.
It really is true that all it takes is for one to work out. Keep building, keep learning, and don't be afraid to fail. The skills you gain and the connections you make are the real prize.