I Ran a Toy Project for 3 Months and Quit: Here’s Why
Last year, I had a side project I worked on for an hour every day after work. At first it was really fun, but after about 3 months I completely lost interest and eventually shut it down. Here’s why:
- Early on, it was fun because I was learning new things technically, but later it was just repetitive CRUD
- Since users weren’t growing, my motivation dropped sharply
- As I got greedy with features, the scope kept growing, so I couldn’t finish it
- Because I was doing it alone, there was no code review, and I just wrote code my own way
In the end, I think the problem wasn’t technology but operations. Building and deploying takes about a month, but after that, getting people and retaining them is the really hard part.
Next time, I’m going to aim to keep features minimal and deploy within 2 weeks first. I’m curious how people with similar experiences got through it.
3 answers
This is totally me lol. I also built five side projects and shut all five down. But I see the cause a bit differently. The problem wasn’t that users weren’t growing—it was that I wasn’t solving a problem users actually needed in the first place. When you build what you want to build, it’s only fun at the beginning, and if nobody uses it, of course your interest fades. So these days, before writing a single line of code, I start by asking five acquaintances, 'Would you use this if it existed?' Sticking with something for 3 months is impressive too, and aiming to ship in 2 weeks next time seems like a good direction. But the real battle is what you do after shipping.
Well, isn't "operations are hard" kind of an obvious conclusion? Most of the time, people abandon side projects simply because they get deprioritized. It's not that tech or operations is the problem—sticking with it for an hour a day after work for three months is just inherently unreasonably hard. And "losing motivation because users aren't growing" is closer to a result than a cause. Cutting scope is right, but the idea that it'll solve motivation too seems a bit optimistic.
I really recommend a 2-week ship goal. I regret doing the opposite... Once I cut it down to just 3 features and shipped, I ended up riding the fun of fixing things based on user feedback for 6 months. Most of the time, the reason things don't get finished is scope — facts.