Hey, I'm Vince...
I’m a self-taught developer that changed careers during the Covid Pandemic. I changed because I wanted a better care...
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I'd say the "Don’t Worry About Competition" part is really important. We found ourselves spiraling into researching tools similar to what we are building, but it played just as you described it. These tools have their niche, while we are targeting something else. Nice article!
Nice. That’s very cool to hear :)
I would also say that stuff you build does not have to be useful, or solve a problem, or even be an 'app' (whatever that means). Most of the stuff I build in my spare time is totally for fun, just for the love of writing code. In my experience, this is ALWAYS the most fun stuff to build.
When you played with Lego as a kid, how often did your creations actually have a 'useful purpose'? I'm guessing 'rarely' - but you built them anyway, and it was fun. That's pretty much how 7 year old me taught himself to code, and how 47 year old me keeps coding enjoyable!
Yeah man. Totally agree. That’s the best way to learn and I’ve built toy apps that end up with features I use in other stuff
Following up on the "Be Playful" section: I love advice from Paul Graham in this direction, where he suggests to call it an "experiment" and not "business" or "startup": this way people won't immediately judge it, and you give yourself freedom to play with it, to not be afraid of failure. Experiment succeeds even if conclusion is that it doesn't work.
Oh cool. I’d love to read that essay if it is one
This is some good content I was looking for in DEV.
🙏 I appreciate the kind words. Glad you like it.
Great topic! I wonder if the community knows of Ali Abdaal - this ex-doctor turned productivity expert on YouTube. He mentions a lot about the aspect of play and having fun to overcome not wanting to start. This relates quite nicely to your mention of being playful.
I really enjoyed your piece! 😄
thanks, Bap! Never heard of him, but sounds really cool. Any videos you can recommend in particular?
A good starting point could be with his presentation of his new book: youtube.com/watch?v=a46eYoUpVBM
His content is not directly related to the dev world, but what he mentions overlaps with how we work as DevRels and developers. You can check out some of his popular videos. Most of his stuff is pretty high quality and has solid insights. I hope that helps you!
Great article, something that I haven't seen for a long time. It's really inspirational. Also, congratulations on your project gaining some traction and revenue! May I ask what marketing strategy you used for it?
Thanks! Mostly open sourcing it helped me to talk about it openly on places like reddit without it seeming like spam
This post is so helpful for many people like me, cause honestly speaking, I just make so many random things which sometimes turn out good, sometimes not and when it does turn out good I feel that I should have made it into an app or something profitable but by that time I had already made the code and the motivation goes out and I am like, leave it, I will do this next time I get a good idea and the cycle continues. I feel this post will help me break the cycle this time.
So cool to hear. Share it with us here on dev.to when you do finish it!
be working on things that interest you. That is really important. It is only then that you can grind, put in the hours and not feel tired. Nice article!
Totally agree. Thanks
Nice, good points! You bring up some common misconceptions and Martin also points out a good point to add to this article :)
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It's a very nice article. Your words were not only valuable, but also incredibly motivating for me. Thank you for sharing!
Happy to help :)
Loved this "strategically underachieve in the lower-priority activities" 🫡
yep. definitely underrated advice!
This was a good read. Exactly what I wanted to see.
I was ready to read more, then you called it a "conversation starter".😢
haha! oh man! not sure what else I can say on the topic besides what's already there :) What would you like to know more about?
More about your experience, I guess. But I believe you've still done justice to this topic. Thank you for sharing!
awesome. will take note of this. Thanks!
Love it, very actionable advice :)
Thanks, Sausage Bro 😎
Very interesting article) I'm from Ukraine and many developers from my country wants to develop own startup. I guess such article helps them to find a right motivation.
Yes. I know of someone from Ukraine who used OpenSaaS to build his own app and he sold it for decent money. His name is Max and he’s on the testimonials section of OpenSaaS.sh
I like your emphasis on the word "playful". Today just coming back to work after a 2 day de-stressing mini-vacation, this resonates well with me 😊
Yep! it's surprising how much we can gain from relaxing and trying to enjoy things a bit more :)
Very inspiring and encouraging, making it more fun as experiments and just to make for the sake of making it is something that I should always remember.
Thanks!
Need suggestions on what to do?
Nice article
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Agreed
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