Personal software factories are a waste of time(peterp.me)
63 points by thegreatpeter | 64 comments
A blog post arguing software engineers should not spend time building personal AI-driven software factories and should instead build actual products.
#side-projects on Hacker News
37 stories tagged side-projects, newest first.
Recreational Programming(cphiri.dev)
284 points by jslakro | 133 comments
A personal developer site page for a presentation titled "Recreational Programming" with the subtitle "You guys are getting paid?"
Worth Building(armstr.ng)
52 points by colinarms | 38 comments
A personal blog essay on how LLMs make it worthwhile to build small personal tools that previously wouldn't justify the effort.
Ask HN: What are you working on? (September 2026)
347 points by david927 | 1064 comments
A monthly Ask HN thread where users share what they are working on, with a top comment about an AI-powered Anki extension.
Mea Culpa – Dark Hours(blog.terrygodier.com)
568 points by satvikpendem | 255 comments
Terry Godier's blog post apologizing for problems with Dark Hours, a website he launched to show what can be seen in the night sky.
Using coding assistance tools to revive projects you never were going to finish(blog.matthewbrunelle.com)
336 points by speckx | 216 comments
Blog post arguing it's fine to use AI coding tools like Claude Code to finish abandoned side projects, describing building a YouTube Music to OpenSubsonic connector.
Sabotaging projects by overthinking, scope creep, and structural diffing(kevinlynagh.com)
512 points by alcazar | 130 comments
Kevin Lynagh's newsletter issue on how overthinking and researching prior art sabotages personal projects, plus scope creep and structural diffing.
Eight years of wanting, three months of building with AI(lalitm.com)
867 points by brilee | 274 comments
Lalit Maganti's essay on building syntaqlite, a set of SQLite devtools, over three months with AI coding agents, covering where AI helped and where it hurt.
Returning to Rails in 2026(markround.com)
351 points by stanislavb | 221 comments
A personal blog post by Mark Dastmalchi-Round about returning to Ruby on Rails in 2026 for a side project.
Your app subscription is now my weekend project(rselbach.com)
501 points by robteix | 345 comments
Blog post by Roberto Selbach about replacing paid app subscriptions like Wispr Flow by vibecoding his own tools, such as a dictation app called Jabber.
Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2025 – Show and tell
336 points by cvbox | 330 comments
An annual Ask HN thread inviting people earning around $500/month from side projects in 2025 to share them, with links to prior years' threads.
Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (December 2025)
400 points by david927 | 1313 comments
A monthly Ask HN thread for December 2025 where Hacker News users share the projects and ideas they are currently working on.
Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (Nov 2025)
415 points by david927 | 1221 comments
Monthly Ask HN thread for November 2025 where Hacker News users share the projects and ideas they are currently working on.
You can't cURL a Border(drobinin.com)
436 points by valzevul | 237 comments
Blog post by Vadim Drobinin about modeling travel visa and border-stay rules as state machines while building an iOS travel app.
Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (June 2025)
405 points by david927 | 1270 comments
A monthly Ask HN thread inviting Hacker News users to share the projects and ideas they are currently working on in June 2025.
I built something that changed my friend group's social fabric(blog.danpetrolito.xyz)
552 points by dandano | 246 comments
A personal blog post by Dan Petrolito about a project he built in 2022 that reshaped how his globally dispersed friend group stays connected.
Writing toy software is a joy(blog.jsbarretto.com)
726 points by bundie | 281 comments
A blog post arguing that programmers should write more small toy programs to learn deeply, citing Feynman's "What I cannot create, I do not understand."
Ditching Obsidian and building my own(amberwilliams.io)
417 points by williamsss | 468 comments
A blog post by Amber Williams about leaving Obsidian and building her own personal knowledge management system.
The curse of knowing how, or; fixing everything(notashelf.dev)
974 points by Lunar5227 | 401 comments
A personal blog essay about how programming skill creates a compulsion to build or fix every tool and problem one encounters.
Ask HN: What are you working on? (April 2025)
368 points by david927 | 1085 comments
Hacker News monthly Ask HN thread where users share the projects and ideas they are working on in April 2025.
The blissful Zen of a good side project(joshcollinsworth.com)
497 points by ingve | 126 comments
A blog post by Josh Collinsworth reflecting on the satisfaction and calm that come from working on a good personal side project.
Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2024 – Show and tell
474 points by cvbox | 517 comments
Annual Ask HN thread inviting people earning around $500/month from side projects in 2024 to share what they built, linking prior years' threads.
Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (October 2024)
361 points by david927 | 981 comments
An Ask HN thread from October 2024 where users share the projects and new ideas they are currently working on.
Ask HN: What are you working on (September 2024)?
331 points by david927 | 940 comments
Monthly Hacker News Ask HN thread for September 2024 where users share projects they are working on and new ideas.
The Art of Finishing(bytedrum.com)
609 points by emmorts | 147 comments
A personal blog essay on the ByteDrum blog about a developer's pile of unfinished side projects and the challenge of actually finishing them.
Ask HN: What are you working on (August 2024)?
551 points by david927 | 1190 comments
An Ask HN thread for August 2024 inviting users to share what they are working on and new ideas, with one moderator comment so far.
I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it(switowski.com)
1399 points by switowski | 395 comments
A blog post by Sebastian Witowski recounting how his 2020 side project earned over $15,000 but became a maintenance burden he grew to hate.
Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?
347 points by g4zj | 119 comments
An Ask HN thread where the poster describes losing curiosity and drive, focusing on personal issues, and asks if others are working on nothing.
Challenging projects every programmer should try (2019)(austinhenley.com)
489 points by azhenley | 286 comments
Austin Henley's 2019 blog post listing challenging side projects, such as a text editor, that programmers can build to learn new languages and skills.
Ask HN: What side projects landed you a job?
443 points by jessehorne | 422 comments
Ask HN thread where users share side projects that helped them get hired and how the projects factored into interviews.
Write more "useless" software(ntietz.com)
819 points by greenSunglass | 239 comments
Blog post arguing that writing playful, "useless" software like the Hurl language is a valuable way to explore and enjoy computing.
My solopreneur story(news.tonydinh.com)
704 points by alexzeitler | 429 comments
Tony Dinh's newsletter post recounting his first two years as a full-time indie hacker, growing from zero to $45K per month in revenue.
I'm fed up with it, so I'm writing a browser(adayinthelifeof.nl)
712 points by jaytaph | 399 comments
A personal blog post from September 2023 in which the author explains why frustration led him to start writing his own web browser, tagged rust and browsers.
It's okay to make something nobody wants(zhangluyao.com)
411 points by levi0214 | 171 comments
A personal blog essay by 张路遥 arguing it's fine to build products for your own excitement rather than for users, opening with a Rick Rubin quote.
Finish your projects(github.com)
442 points by aarondf | 184 comments
A GitHub ReadME guide offering advice to developers on how to finish their software projects rather than abandoning them.
Ask HN: Most interesting tech you built for just yourself?
1843 points by l2silver | 1695 comments
Ask HN thread inviting users to share interesting software or hardware they built solely for personal use, such as custom AR tools or family calendar displays.
Ask HN: Side project of more than $2k monthly revenue? what's your project?
424 points by max_ | 407 comments
Ask HN thread asking people with side projects earning over $2k monthly what they built and how long it took to reach that revenue.