This post isn’t about promoting my side projects. It’s a reflection on my 18-year journey of building them.
I’m the kind of person who is always working on something on the side. More often than not, it’s a web app or a website.
Over the years, these side projects have rarely made me any money directly. I build something, share it on Hacker News and Product Hunt, enjoy the initial buzz, and then, once the excitement wears off and people stop coming back, I eventually delete the project and move on.
I’ve been doing this for 18 years.
There have been a few exceptions where a project made some money, but even then, we’re talking about a few hundred dollars—not anything substantial.
And yet, after dozens of failed projects, I still can’t seem to live without having a side project.
Recently, I started thinking about why.
After some honest reflection, I think I’ve figured it out: I build side projects for the dopamine hit.
Every time I start something new, I imagine it becoming viral. I picture thousands of people discovering it, talking about it, and coming back to use it.
The launch gives me a rush. The initial comments, upvotes, sign-ups, and attention give me another hit. And for a while, I feel like I’ve accomplished something.
In some ways, I think I’ve been treating my side projects the way an influencer treats content: constantly creating and hoping the next thing will go viral and give me that next dopamine hit.
There’s nothing particularly healthy about that.
And perhaps that is exactly why I struggle to stick with a project for myself. Once the initial excitement fades and the project doesn’t take off, I lose interest and start looking for the next idea.
It becomes a cycle:
Build → Launch → Get attention → Get the dopamine hit → Lose interest → Move on to the next idea.
I want to break that cycle.
I want to stop being addicted to the idea of building something that goes viral.
But side projects have helped me
Despite all of this, I can’t deny how much my side projects have contributed to my career.
I started my career as nobody. I had very little exposure to the technology world and no clear idea where it would take me.
From there, I’ve reached where I am today. It may not look like much by most standards, but only I know the silent struggles and the journey it took to get here.
My side projects played a huge role in that journey.
They helped me learn new skills, experiment with different technologies, switch tech stacks with confidence, and experience almost the entire product lifecycle—from an idea to building, launching, promoting, and eventually shutting down a product.
More importantly, they taught me how to fail.
I’ve failed dozens of times, and somehow, I’ve always managed to get back up and start again.
That, perhaps, is the most valuable thing my side projects have given me.
A different goal for my next project
So, I’m not planning to stop building side projects.
But I want to change why I build them.
For my next side project, I don’t want to build something hoping it will go viral. I want to build a simple product that I genuinely fall in love with.
Something I enjoy using. Something I enjoy improving.
And I want to keep working on it regardless of whether ten people use it, a thousand people use it, or nobody uses it at all.
I want to enjoy the process of building, rather than constantly chasing the outcome.
Maybe that will be a more meaningful way for me to build.
One last thing
I also wanted to share this YouTube video where I gave a presentation to a group of college students at Francis Xavier College, Tirunelveli, about the importance of side projects.
Looking back at the presentation now, some of it sounds a little silly to me. But I’ll still leave the link here.