I've built 211 side projects in the last two weeks. Before that, I'd built and abandoned probably 50 over the past decade.
Here's what nobody tells you about why side projects die — and it's not motivation, time, or technical skill.
The Lie We Tell Ourselves
"I ran out of time."
No, you didn't. You had 168 hours this week, same as everyone. You spent 3-4 hours building, then stopped. Not because you ran out of time — because you hit The Boring Middle.
The Boring Middle
Every project has three phases:
- The Exciting Start (2-4 hours): New repo, fresh ideas, everything's possible
- The Boring Middle (20-200 hours): Edge cases, error handling, deployment, testing, documentation
- The Satisfying End (1-2 hours): Ship it, share it, get that dopamine hit
Phase 2 is where 95% of side projects die. And it's not because it's hard — it's because it's boring.
Writing unit tests? Boring.
Handling edge cases? Boring.
Setting up CI/CD? Boring.
Writing documentation? Boring.
But this is where real products are made.
The Pattern I Noticed
When I tracked my 50 abandoned projects, they all died in the same spot:
- ✅ Core feature works
- ✅ It runs locally
- ❌ No error handling
- ❌ No tests
- ❌ No documentation
- ❌ Never deployed
- ❌ Never shared
The project was 20% done but felt 80% done. That gap is the graveyard.
What Actually Works
After failing 50 times, here's what finally worked for me:
1. Ship the ugly version first
Your first version should embarrass you slightly. If it doesn't, you waited too long. I published repos with 10-line READMEs and zero tests. Some got users anyway.
2. Make "done" smaller
Instead of "build a stock analysis platform," make it "one Python function that fetches Apple's stock price." Done. Ship it. If people want more, they'll tell you.
3. Document before you code
Write the README first. If you can't explain what it does in 3 sentences, the project is too big. Shrink it.
4. Set a 2-hour shipping deadline
If it's not deployable in 2 hours, you're overcomplicating it. My best projects took under an hour: a wrapper around a free API + a nice README + a Dev.to article.
5. Build in public (seriously)
When I started publishing everything to GitHub, even the ugly stuff, something changed. Knowing other people might see it created just enough pressure to push through The Boring Middle.
The Uncomfortable Truth
The developers with the most successful side projects aren't better programmers. They're better at being bored.
They sit in The Boring Middle and keep going. They write the docs. They handle the edge cases. They ship when it's only 60% of what they imagined.
And then they move on to the next one.
Your Turn
What's sitting in your "unfinished projects" graveyard right now?
Pick one. Give yourself 2 hours. Ship whatever you have.
I'm currently building API tools and scrapers. Latest: Alpha Vantage stock dashboard | SEC EDGAR scraper | Full portfolio
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