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by bigyabai 399 days ago
It sounds like you're a little too focused on metrics of success. Something can be "worth it" if it works well and nobody but you uses it. If you look at everything through the lens of opportunity cost, you'll be kicking yourself for not curing cancer. It's okay to work on an unambitious, likely unsuccessful side project. That time is only "wasted" if you're not proud of the work and can't show it to future employers.
1 comments

I'm not focused on any particular metric other than motivation here.

I'm sure some things on my ideas list could make a bunch of money - like taking some SaaS everyone hates because it's enshittified, making one that's not enshittified yet, then selling it to an enshittification company in a few years for a big payout. You'd think the possibility of money would be motivating, but it's not.

I do have unsuccessful side projects that I do sometimes work on, and I'm not motivated to finish them to any substantial degree either.