There’s an opportunity here to transmit wisdom from now (age 36) to when I was 20-something (you). Normally I don’t explicitly mention age; I hated when people did that to me when I was younger, and maybe it’s a rite of passage that you only "get it" when you’re older.
Here’s the recipe for success, as far as I can tell: 1. You’re not going to make any money from your side projects. Internalize that, and believe it. 2. Do everything in your power to try to make money from your side projects.
Both parts are important. Step one means that you won’t take it personally if you fail. You won’t be disappointed because you weren’t hoping for anything to begin with. Step two means you’ll actually put in effort where it counts, by analyzing the situation dispassionately. Do those things that people say are important. Market your work. The best marketing I’ve found is to make entertaining HN and Twitter posts (seriously; 100% of whatever small amount of notoriety I have stems from these two sources). More importantly, design your apps to be gathering money. That means doing something that most people would call "a dick move". Perfect example: I just tried a 3d scanner app called prodAR. There was no tutorial, some of the interface was broken, it didn’t support screen rotation, and it demanded $30/yr before it allowed me to save my scan. I paid the $30. Why? Because it yields the best scans of any app I tried. It delivers quality where it counts, and wastes zero time anywhere else. This is the essence of being effective.
Personally, I’m terrible at step two. I can’t bring myself mentally to be ok with shipping a 3d scanner that doesn’t e.g. support screen rotation. That’s also why I haven’t shipped anything that generates passive income, and why I’m trying to steer you the other direction. It’s really ok to ship crap, as long as it’s crap in areas that aren’t the core value proposition of your product. It’s arguably necessary to ship crap if you ever intend to make money. Even pg would admit his initial v0 of startup news was (very) slightly crappy in areas that didn’t get in the way of the essence of what became Hacker News.
That’s the best I’ve got. Good luck, and I hope you make a nice passive income stream for yourself. Don’t underestimate the effects of growth; even $30/mo should impress you, not disappoint you, as long as you focus on exactly one thing: make that number go up over time, superlinearly. https://paulgraham.com/superlinear.html
Here’s the recipe for success, as far as I can tell: 1. You’re not going to make any money from your side projects. Internalize that, and believe it. 2. Do everything in your power to try to make money from your side projects.
Both parts are important. Step one means that you won’t take it personally if you fail. You won’t be disappointed because you weren’t hoping for anything to begin with. Step two means you’ll actually put in effort where it counts, by analyzing the situation dispassionately. Do those things that people say are important. Market your work. The best marketing I’ve found is to make entertaining HN and Twitter posts (seriously; 100% of whatever small amount of notoriety I have stems from these two sources). More importantly, design your apps to be gathering money. That means doing something that most people would call "a dick move". Perfect example: I just tried a 3d scanner app called prodAR. There was no tutorial, some of the interface was broken, it didn’t support screen rotation, and it demanded $30/yr before it allowed me to save my scan. I paid the $30. Why? Because it yields the best scans of any app I tried. It delivers quality where it counts, and wastes zero time anywhere else. This is the essence of being effective.
Personally, I’m terrible at step two. I can’t bring myself mentally to be ok with shipping a 3d scanner that doesn’t e.g. support screen rotation. That’s also why I haven’t shipped anything that generates passive income, and why I’m trying to steer you the other direction. It’s really ok to ship crap, as long as it’s crap in areas that aren’t the core value proposition of your product. It’s arguably necessary to ship crap if you ever intend to make money. Even pg would admit his initial v0 of startup news was (very) slightly crappy in areas that didn’t get in the way of the essence of what became Hacker News.
That’s the best I’ve got. Good luck, and I hope you make a nice passive income stream for yourself. Don’t underestimate the effects of growth; even $30/mo should impress you, not disappoint you, as long as you focus on exactly one thing: make that number go up over time, superlinearly. https://paulgraham.com/superlinear.html