This article was originally published byTed Bendixon on.cult by Honeypot, a Berlin-based community platform for developers.
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Some five years ago, I wrote a popular article about side projects.
In that article, I asked a simple question.
What does a good side project look like?
It should make money.
It should give you space to flex your creative muscles, and it should be limited in scope.
I say job because I want to draw a sharp distinction between a job and a career.
A few years back, I might have considered trying to get such a job.
I would have thought it valuable to learn such a skill set because it popped up so often.
That said, I wouldnt consider such a position to necessarily be a career.
A career is what people think of you long after youre dead.
Most employees are not in that situation.
Is it a position where you will be given some degree of ownership over the products direction and design?
What separates this job from factory work?
How will this job challenge you in new and interesting ways?
In the end, I didnt choose React Native.
In many ways, that kind of job isnt all that different from factory work.
It would be like assembling IKEA furniture.
Youre given a framework, and all you have to do is snap the parts together.
For some, thats a fine existence.
Youre just doing your job.
And I think its important to recognize that sort of thing and to be honest with yourself about it.
I didnt want to merely use a framework or tool someone else made.
I didnt (and still dont) think React Native and most of these SDKs are designed well.
I believed (and still believe) we can do better.
Unfortunately, most companies simply arent in a position to do that.
The demands of the present day outweigh the perceived benefit of investing in a better way to work.
Its the kind of computer science education that is sorely lacking, and I dove right into it.
During holiday breaks, I invested even more time because its something Im interested in.
The results of that small effort are kind of remarkable.
Over two years in, I now have a fully playable puzzle game with 34 levels.
Most importantly, this time investment gave me a totally new view of software development.
I learned how to program in C. I learned about CPUs, GPUs, and graphics programming.
Ive written one 2D renderer in Metal, and Im working on porting the same thing to OpenGL.
Ive learned game design skills.
I have come up with over seventy puzzles and have made a series of increasingly better prototypes.
I wrote a 2D physics system that is fine-tuned for the things my game does.
I made a pixel graphics editor because its fun and it only took a few days.
I also wrote a texture packaging tool to make texture loading faster when the game starts up.
I paid exactly zero dollars to Unity/Unreal or any of the third-party engines.
This hasnt just been an investment in my skills and understanding.
Its been an investment in the tools my company will use in the future.
I might invent a new way to do cross-platform app development that other companies can use.
Expect your side project to change your outlook and opinions.
If you no longer believe the same things, its a sign youre growing.
Like I said earlier, I didnt always hold the views I hold now.
Not too long ago, I may have wanted a title like Senior React Native Engineer.
There are only so many allowable configurations, so many combinations.
It just naturally puts a ceiling on your growth.
I know I havent.
If making the best cup of coffee were my lifes ambition, thats the route I would have taken.
But I know thats not the route Ive taken.
Thats why I dont turn on my Keurig and call myself a coffee expert.
This is the sort of criticism I have leveled upon myself, as a so-called software engineer.
Last fall, I quit contracting full-time and have stepped back to part-time to work on my games.
Money wasnt enough to keep me happy, as I believe life and career is about more than money.
Innovation rarely comes from grabbing the low-hanging fruit.
Dont go and learn another framework.
Take the time to build your own thing from scratch.
Pick lower level languages like C. Make your own programming language if youre so inclined.
Im sure you would learn a lot by doing that.
Im reminded of Nancy Silverton, the founder of the La Brea Bakery.
It certainly wasnt necessary, and nobody in Los Angeles was doing this at the time.
But she kept working at it.
When she introduced her work to the wider world, it was readily embraced.
The rest is history.
The La Brea Bakery is a huge success.
Nancy Silverton is credited with popularizing sourdough and artisan bread in the United States.
None of it would have happened if, instead of experimenting, she thought, Why reinvent the wheel?
What can I really hope to contribute as an individual?
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