How to finish your side project?

Want the real answer? Do the work. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Over one year ago, my GF and I had an idea for creating a simple web app that would extract Kindle clippings into some useful formats like Markdown (to store those in Obsidian) or CSV (for further import).

Almost a year ago, I registered a domain, set up a landing in one evening, we started some drafts on code together, and then… nothing. Why it’s so hard to do actual work?

Aside from, you know, life why do developers so rarely finish their projects? I can speak only from my experience - but I think it’s mostly the boring bits. Solving some new problem, trying new technology is always exciting, but you rarely can escape the dull part.

For the signup, do I do OAuth or password/email? What about password recovery? Or right, the SMTP then, so I need some mailers. What about error reporting? Do I care about logs? Do I deploy this in the cloud somewhere? I probably could use a landing. And some interface. Do I use bootstrap and plan HTML or… and the story goes on.

Most developers hate the boring bits. I know I hate those bits. After dealing with boring bits at your day job/gig, how does one force self to do it all over again?

My not-so-secret recipe is consistency. We forced ourselves, made at least a single contribution a day, and released a half-baked MVP for our amusement. It took us 10 months of waiting and 20 days of work.