A Full Year of Solo Projects — What I Built, What I Learned, and Why I'm Giving It All Away

MC88 — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 11:41:24 +0000

Hi, I'm MC88.

Last year was my first year trying GitHub. It started with a project I was required to do. I liked the idea that what I build has a place where I can share it. After that, I ran out of ideas — because the first time I entered GitHub, I was only required to do one project. I thought it was just a stop on the road, and I'd move on.

But during the presentation of that project, I used a QR code from a website. On presentation day, the QR code didn't work. I managed, but a thought hit me:

Can I build my own QR code generator?

I searched, I tried, I failed, I tried again — and it worked. I uploaded it to GitHub. That was a turning point. The emptiness and lack of ideas were replaced by a new habit: build a tool for every problem I face.

I kept going. But I don't always find problems.

Then I found a new idea: solve problems that others before me had suffered from, because the service was paid or too complicated. I spent a long time on that.

Then I started writing down ideas. I try some of them. I learn my limits in each field. I try, I fail, sometimes I delete, sometimes I upload under the name "project that survived" — not because it works perfectly, but because I want to document my attempts and what I went through. Maybe someone finds it one day and benefits from it. That's better than deleting it forever.

Some of my projects might seem strange to some. Some might be purely aesthetic. Some are just ideas that once felt out of reach, and I turned them into something relatively tangible. But as I said: I try, I learn from my experiments.

About my single-file philosophy:

Most of my projects are just one file. That's on purpose. First: it's portable. Second: you just unzip it and it works. Third: it does what a multi-file project does. There are some bigger projects with many files, but I always lean toward simplifying things for the visitor — even if they're not technical, even if they don't know the field, they can still use what I build.

About licenses and all that:

I'm not an expert in those things. My only condition is: what I offer is 100% free. You can do whatever you want with it. But don't sell it. Even if you improve it or modify it, try not to make it paid.

Some might see this as stupid — not monetizing it, not profiting from it. But I built these so people can benefit from them, not so I can benefit from people

In the end, a person has to find a way to trick life sometimes. But one day they'll know that money isn't everything. A person's value isn't in what they own — it's in who they are. The origin never changes.

To you, dear reader:

Thank you for reaching this point. I'm happy you read what I wrote.

Don't hesitate — I built these projects for someone. For you. Even as a regular user, you can comment with your experience with the site. No need to understand the code or what's behind it.

And if you're an expert and you know the value of public projects; you can visit my account. You'll find files, documentation, and more. Don't hesitate to leave a comment, even a small one. It could help me — here, by email, or by opening an issue. Your comment means a lot to me.

Thank you for your time. I hope I didn't waste it with this article. And if you noticed any writing mistakes, shortcomings in meaning, or bad expression — that's on me. English is my third language. If you comment even about my language mistakes, I welcome it I'll take your advice seriously.

Here is my site, called all-in. It has all my projects:

👉 [https://mc-mc88.github.io/ALL-IN/]

In the future, I might come back irregularly and write about one of my projects in detail. Until then, thank you for your time.

Goodbye 👋

— MC88

DEV Community: MC88

A Full Year of Solo Projects — What I Built, What I Learned, and Why I'm Giving It All Away