Non-Pointless Software Projects for New Devs in the LLM Age
8 points by Ameo
8 points by Ameo
The issue is that it’s often really hard to find an idea for a project to work on that feels worth doing.
Well. I certainly don’t have that problem! There’s so much cool stuff to play with and so little time.
I think the author is on the right track re: build stuff for yourself. If your primary purpose is external, such as fluffing up your GitHub profile so a recruiter will notice you… yeah, I can see how that would be demotivating and lack purpose. I wrote a snake game that nobody will ever play. Whoopee.
But if you’re building it for yourself, even a snake game that nobody will ever play has the potential to be rewarding. If it’s your first game, learn about event loops and how to structure an interactive program! Learn a new language, or a new library! Store your high score table in SQLite—not because it’s the best tool for the job, but because you want to learn how Zig-C interop works or something!
It really is an early career issue, not having any good ideas for projects. As you gain technical depth you hit an inflection point where the rate of becoming aware of worthwhile projects matches then exceeds the rate you’re able to work on them, and then they pile up to infinity until you die. As with queuing theory this is nonlinear; once you hit the inflection point it’s a quick transition from “bored, don’t know what to do” to “swamped, one lifetime is not enough”. So I guess enjoy being on the left side of that curve while it lasts?
An easy way to skip ahead on this curve is get involved in FOSS projects. Accepting the challenge of working with other people on code you did not write. But this post seems to be about extracurricular stuff, and worthwhile FOSS projects generally demand more than can be provided on evenings & weekends.
Even when I was in school, I had plenty of project ideas. Maybe what made my experience different is I had a very broad definition of “worth doing”: the only justification I needed was “Wouldn’t it be cool if [some software] existed?” Also, I was immortal back then, so I didn’t worry about whether any given project would be a waste of my time.
Not saying that’s good career advice or that it maximizes impact on the world. (Like you said, FOSS involvement fits that better, but it’s a time commitment.)