How do you stand out after (and before) AI, and have fun in the process? A personal project 💯
With "personal" I mean just for you or a small group, limited scale, specific use case.
Here are my thoughts after working on countless personal projects 👇
Personal projects as a proxy for excellence
I have been involved in hiring engineers (before AI). You know the first place I checked for each candidate?
Their Github profile 💁🏼♂️
Most skills (programming especially) are refined with volume and repetition. Github shows me your reps 💪🏻
This is even more true with AI. This is what I am looking for:
- Coding for learning, even without being prompted by money or a job
- Coding in different technologies/languages
- Good care of your work (title, description,
README) - A lot of repetitions and experiments 🔬
Those speak louder than any CV, degree, or reward.
Personal projects as tools
With code, I am rarely moved by sheer "aspiration of learning".
Nearly all my personal project are meant as "tools" to enhance other activities I enjoy 🔗
Examples:
- Spaced repetition app when I was learning English vocabularies
- Chrome extension to collect Japanese words when I started learning the language
- Text editor to allow other people to edit/publish articles (in a blog together)
- Pixel art editor when I was practicing this art style
All of these were meant for me. All took quite a while to put together. All of them did not last that long 💁🏼♂️
But, all of them are on my Github, a portray of my journey to excellence 🚀
Personal projects as explorations
The other category of projects are complete "jump in the void".
This is when I come up with a problem that fits a specific technology I want to test out:
- Researching state machines in the context of a Godot game
- Exploring local-first and sync engine on the web
- Learn how to build an infinite canvas with zoom and pan gestures
Those are fun! It's a full "I don't know how to do this, but I know I can learn how". A feeling that deserves its own name ✨
Personal projects as pure enjoyment
Sometimes projects get "too far", such that you spend more and more hours, even when you know you won't use that tool anymore 💁🏼♂️
But that's beside the point 🙌
When AI comes for all these things, you'll come to realize enjoyment in learning anything is the only real thing left.
When AI comes for all these things, you'll come to realize enjoyment in learning anything is the only real thing left.
This random tweet captures what I consider is the real purpose of a personal project:
I work on these projects because I enjoy the process (much more than the outcome).
A couple of constraints/rules:
- Avoid leaving abandoned projects: make sure you reach some sort of "end", something that is usable and presentable before leaving
- Don't start a project just for "showcase" if there is no fun in doing it
That's right, most of what you see my publish online is made for me. Sharing and open source is an additional spark of enjoyment.
Teaching is the best form of learning 🙌
Back from another memorable experience at the @EffectTS_ Days, this time as a speaker 💯 I had huge expectations, but the conference went even beyond that 🚀
Nothing published recently, currently in my personal research phase, (usually) followed by a surge of new content 🔜
See you next 👋