Hi :).
Today, the internet is filled with tools. What an amazing time to be alive. But it's also a curse : you never learn to do basic things by your own. It ends up by not knowing how things really work. For example, you could learn web developement by learning a JS framework like Vue or Angular but never learn how to do basic JS. It doesn't fit this basic concept : "choose the less complexe technlogy to do your project". Anway, in this lil article, I'll try to convince you to do things ! It's kinda wide I know. To be more accurate, I'll talk about doing personnal IT project, but it may be extended to other type of projects (I'll stick to what I know, which is computers boop booping)
Sometimes, I feel like everything has already been done, way better that how I'll do it myself. But the reality is that this project were made by people like you and me, who learned by doing unperfect personnal project. One day, you'll not find a very specific feature in tools, you will have a feeling incompleteness. And at this moment, you'll feel what I think every developer feel one day : the need to do your very own tool. This thought can be seen as irrationnal (and it may be), because there is already a project that does everything you need, exepect this one tiny thing. If you think this feeling will pass, I don't think it will. You'll always have this little voice telling you to do it. For me, it was smooth-pomodoro. I couldn't find a Pomodoro that gives me total freedom to handle the time (add one minute, remove one, skip, etc). So even if there is approximatively one billion pomodoro web app, I did my own. And it was a real pleasure. The process was cool, but the satisfaction at the end was the best part. Knowing that you did your thing is really a pleasure like no one. And the feeling to control every one aspect of your tool is a great pleasure too. The last small little plus, you'll learn by doing it.
Since I started doing code as a job, I feel bad when I do unperfect code. But every code should not look good (code outside company time of course, I keep my code clean when I work don't worry). Sometimes, coding is more like a creative process without much logic in it. You just do your thing as you feel it. You write half of the code in one function, you put comments that have no sens, etc. Your code is terrible but you don't care. Because what you do really care about is this feeling. The feeling of creation. I met this feeling the first time with Last Day. It was my first "creative project" if I can call it like that. And it was a ... weird experience. It was great, but so weird. Anyway, the project was weird in the first place and it was meant to be like that. So I succeeded ! This ugly code transformed into a feeling. And it was great. Everything shouldn't be company grade. Especially artistic things. Accept that sometimes, perfection broke the imagination process.
One of the many many inspiration for this is the part named Battleships vs. Wigwams from Taylor's blog. If one day you read this article Taylor, thank you :).
03/02/2025
Last update: 03/02/2025