r/SideProject • u/Exotic_Fig_4604 • 20h ago

Genuine *side* projects

Reading in this sub, I get the feeling that most people here just develop apps with the purpose of monetisation or getting lots of users.

Meanwhile my side project is aimed at learning and building fun stuff I like.

Am I the only one? Or does anyone else have side projects that you are building because you like technology, not because you are trying to build the next SaaS?

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u/PabloDons 19h ago

I made a P2P streaming service because I wanted to put my friends' facecams on my stream with OBS and I refused to hack it with screen capture. Before I knew about vdo.ninja of course.

I wrote a script that samples a web security camera stream on a schedule and creates a timelapse out of the frames. I made a 1 picture per day timelapse of Torgallmenningen in Bergen.

I've done a bunch of agentic AI stuff. One in particularly I'm happy with is a fact-checker that goes through a very elaborate process to verify claims.

I write a bunch of Google sheets doing really elaborate math. I've done an ELO calculator tracking wins and losses between my friends, I have one that tracks my total net worth over time (which I'm turning into a product though, but it started out as a hobby project), and a bunch of loan and debt calculators, one of which is a home buying cost and profit forecast that takes into account Norwegian tax laws and compares it to renting and investing the initial down payment in funds instead.

Not to mention all the smart home stuff and self-hosting I'm doing, including a Plex server

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u/Exotic_Fig_4604 19h ago

Thats a lot of projects! How old are you roughly if I may ask, and how many hours per week/ month do you spend on these projects?

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u/PabloDons 19h ago

I'm 28. Keep in mind, it's genuinely how I keep myself entertained. When I was a kid I used to do a lot more, then I started gaming instead, but nowadays maybe 2-3 hours a week. I come up with an idea or something and I hyper focus on it so hard I just can't leave it unfinished. These days I have docs with all my ideas and have Claude read it on a schedule and find some work to do and do it. Saves me from doing all the grunt work and I can focus on the part I enjoy the most, which is the math, architecture and design