[will_pseudonym]

What makes you say that they're different skills? Or, why do you view them differently? I'd love to read more about this distinction.

[burlesona]

A side hustle is just fundamentally different than a full-time job. On the one hand, something else is paying the bills, so you can be patient. But on the other hand, you can't take meetings 9-5, or push nearly as hard on the work as you could if it was full time, so you have to be patient.

It's quite difficult to work on something enough on the side to build momentum and get it rolling, and it's extra hard to maintain that momentum for long enough for it to reach "escape velocity," that is, to become profitable to where you can quit your day job.

So the challenge of managing the two jobs, and specifically transitioning from day job + hobby (at the beginning), to two jobs but one doesn't really pay well, to finally quitting the first job so you can focus on the bootstrapped project...

That's just a whole different beast from somebody who quits their job and starts a business (with or without raising money).

[NetOpWibby]

The momentum part is key. I have several side hustles and sometimes lose steam so I work on something else.

On the plus side, time away from projects allows me to view them with fresh eyes and identify what could be better and/or pivot.

[ngokevin]

I feel side projects is something you do for fun or on a whim. You just start building immediately on your off-time with not much expectations. Maybe to try out a new technology. It's more of a solo engineering activity. You build it first, and maybe down the line, something comes of it and you do a Show HN in six months.

A business is more broad and deliberate. From the get-go, you need to constantly be talking to many people, have a process for validating the problem, track metrics, plan your time, think about opportunity costs of pursuing different paths, have sales funnels, marketing, scope things out, etc.