[HN Gopher] Ask HN: What is your "I don't care if this succeeds"...
___________________________________________________________________
Ask HN: What is your "I don't care if this succeeds" project?
One where you don't care if it makes money or gets a lot of
attention, but you are working on it regardless. I don't think I
mean private hobbies, exactly, but projects that could or will be
shared with others - you just don't care about the outcome.
Author : as89
Score : 19 points
Date : 2021-02-01 19:45 UTC (3 hours ago)
| vocabboost wrote:
| I am developing https://vocab-boost.online/ (smoke test page,
| extension is being reviewed in webstore). It is a Chrome
| extension to make language tests out of any page. I used this
| approach to improve my vocabular to pass German C1 exam.
| kgin wrote:
| I love this. I've often wondered how to scrape netflix
| subtitles for a similar reason.
| as89 wrote:
| This is interesting! I've never thought to test myself this way
| on real-world examples.
| vocabboost wrote:
| Thank you! My crux was to expand the vocabulary using texts I
| enjoy (not the testing itself). One could call this "very
| active reading", where I try to fill in words from the
| context.
| firedating wrote:
| I develop https://firedating.me - my hobby project and a place
| for FIRE (Financial Independence / Retire Early) enthusiasts to
| find friends and a partner. My goal is to help FIRE people build
| meaningful connections and decrease the amount of loneliness in
| the community.
|
| I don't make any money, instead I've spent around $130 and 400
| hours so far. It is actually a lot of fun to learn web
| development and encounter various unexpected challenges everyday.
| There are also rewarding aspects - 9 couples, who met through the
| site, have reached out to me and were grateful. This feeling of
| changing people's lives in this way is amazing! I have no clue
| where this brings me, but I enjoy it so much. I try to spend at
| least 1.5 hours a day in 2021. In 2020 I had a goal to spend at a
| least 1 hour a day on my side projects and that's how firedating
| was born ;)
| nelsonmandela wrote:
| What made you decide to show the ratio of male:female?
| AndreasHae wrote:
| My friend group used to participate in some game jams in high
| school. Just two weeks ago, we decided that it's time to take the
| best one of our creations and extend it so far that we can
| release it in some stores. We don't expect to make a lot of money
| from it, we're just in for the experience of creating something
| cool from start to finish.
|
| Here's the link to the Ludum Dare entry in case anyone is
| interested: https://randomaccessgames.itch.io/neon-kata
| rpastuszak wrote:
| Ulysses (https://homer.sonnet.io ) - a little text editor I built
| when I felt burned out, so I could improve my writing fluency,
| de-stress (more context: https://sonnet.io/posts/ulysses/).
|
| I have no idea how many people are using it regularly.
|
| I think it's more than one, but I don't really care, I enjoy
| using it immensely and I've been writing ca. 1k words per day,
| consistently, for more than a year. Can't ask for more:)
| desi_ninja wrote:
| the idea sounds fantastic. I suggest building a community
| around it
| nightblade wrote:
| I recently built a service (https://timetrigger.dev) that was
| mostly for fun and not profit. I wouldn't say I don't care about
| it per se but if it makes no money that's ok. Hopefully it will
| at least get some customers though!
| logicslave wrote:
| Got any customers yet? When did you release it?? Looks great
| nightblade wrote:
| Thanks! I launched it softly on Friday and no customers as of
| yet but I dog-food this tool in another project I am working
| on :-)
| HEHENE wrote:
| Interesting product. Can't think of an immediate use for it
| but I'll keep it in mind.
|
| PS, typo on list item three:
|
| > Time Trigger is meant run individual tasks a a specific
| time.
| erlend_sh wrote:
| I'm building a minimalistic, 1v1 MOBA game (Dota/LoL) that's all
| about grand strategy at the macro level, like chess. It is
| designed from scratch to accommodate AI development.
|
| OpenAI gave up after beating 99% of players in a limited version
| of DOTA2. They essentially just figured out how to out-micro
| human players. We want to let players play alongside AI
| assistance, like a racing car driver backed up by their team of
| mechanics and engineers.
|
| https://github.com/amethyst/shotcaller
| peterburkimsher wrote:
| https://pingtype.github.io - it helps me learn Chinese, and I'm
| going to keep using it even though it doesn't have any traction.
| Generating word spacing, pinyin, and literal translations for
| interesting text, rather than just homework books, is far more
| motivating.
| as89 wrote:
| This is really cool - wish I had this when I was learning
| chinese. Maybe I'll use it to pick it up again!
| aminozuur wrote:
| https://wor.do/@aminozuur
|
| Wordo. An English dictionary that my friends and I built. It has
| a handful of active users, who swear by it. Other than that, no
| one uses it. It's existed for a few years and I keep pushing
| small updated a few times a year, it makes me happy :).
| drzel wrote:
| I work on a mod for the original Quake Team Fortress. We've been
| getting roughly eight players a night for many years. That's
| enough to play. That's enough success for me.
| https://www.FortressOne.org
| chrisrickard wrote:
| Dev to Agency (https://devtoagency.com) - I am writing on how
| developers can start and run their own custom software agencies.
| This is from my experience starting, running, and selling my
| agency over 8 years...
|
| I have never written before this, and not sure if it's something
| I will after this - but at this stage I need to "get it all out
| of my head". I don't foresee this being a forever project because
| ultimately I would have said all I want to say. But at this
| stage, it feels cathartic :)
| as89 wrote:
| My project involves turning an old Saab into a racecar, and using
| it to explore moonshot ideas like creating a composite from
| natural materials instead of fiberglass or carbon fiber. The
| racecar part keeps it fun, even if the ideas don't pan out.
|
| Documenting it here: https://surjan.substack.com/
| helmholtz wrote:
| Fantastic! You're such an engaging writer. Subscribed.
|
| I've gotten a tad weary of only reading programmer's blogs. You
| can only transfer over things like stateless application design
| so far into other fields. Mechanical Engineers deserve some
| love too! Sadly, the closest I've come to a "Hacker News for
| Mechanical Engineers" is the FSAE forums, aka, not close at
| all. So your blog is very welcome!
| martin-adams wrote:
| For me it's the Zettelkasten/smart notes app I'm working on. I've
| been a frustrated with how I take notes from books, videos, blog
| posts, etc. I want to build a zero-inbox style workflow around
| organising my notes consistently so that I can start to blog with
| a wealth of research and ideas at my fingertips. So I've started
| building Flowtelic.
|
| Early (no signup/in browser storage) version is live at
| https://app.flowtelic.com.
|
| A video showing how to use it is here:
| https://youtu.be/Zo9hIuffz_0
|
| I'm documenting as I build this over on Twitter at
| https://twitter.com/Martin_Adams
| helmholtz wrote:
| It's lovely. It's amazing how little things can make such a big
| difference. In your case, the index-card default size of the
| note subtly, but powerfully, encourages _smaller_ notes.
| Typical new-age zettelkasten apps are still A4 sized pages, so
| this is a welcome change.
|
| I'll add some more pointless two cents. I use, and love,
| Obsidian for the following reasons. I'm a research engineer,
| and it supports latex equations, markdown formatting, pasting
| images from the clipboard, and syntax highlighting. It is also
| beautiful from the get go (as is your app); the line spacing is
| just-right, the colour scheme is pleasant, the editor and
| preview mode typefaces are both delightful. But, I do use it as
| a full-fledged note taking app.
|
| In your shoes (and contrary to the spirit of the thread, I
| admit), I would definitely spend time getting to know to whom
| you're targetting this app. Perhaps yourself, which is fair.
| But, for instance, it wouldn't work for someone like me. Still,
| I like what you've done here and I wish you all the best!!
| martin-adams wrote:
| Thank you so much for the feedback. I too am an Obsidian user
| which is really nice for technical documentation. I have to
| be careful that I don't confuse the audience: those who want
| to collect thoughts for writing; and those who organise notes
| for research (i.e. technical knowledge). I actually do both
| and there are different needs in each.
|
| The only things on your list that I hadn't considered was
| latex equations and whether I should offer different design
| customisations of the cards.
|
| I'm glad you picked up on the index card size default. I will
| offer both full-page notes as well, but there's another
| reason why I want them as card sized--so you can lay them out
| on a virtual workspace to help answer questions from your
| slip box.
|
| Honestly, there's too many ideas that I can't do everything.
| But it's sure fun working on it and gradually making it
| better each release.
| simplecto wrote:
| Hah. Quite a few:
|
| https://www.3cosystem.com -- a simple startup events calendar.
| I'm surprised it is still up. It scrapes the Meetup API firehose,
| filters for tech events, and drops indexes on 65 cities world-
| wide. It never gets updates, and I'm surprised it still works.
| giantg2 wrote:
| I've created a couple Android apps that I published. I did it
| mostly to learn and have fun. They weren't really successful and
| I didn't make any money, but there are/were (haven't checked
| lately) a few thousand installs.
| cjgk wrote:
| My wife runs an online fabric shop with a very... focused target
| market, and I've spent countless hours developing and fabricating
| a product for that shop.
|
| It's a pattern weight, essentially an 80mm wooden cylinder, 16mm
| thick, with a metal weight embedded inside.
|
| We've sold a grand total of 50 (sets of five) but it's been great
| as a way to learn to run my CNC router!
| hikerclimber wrote:
| everyone of them.
| garbene wrote:
| https://kindmind.com
|
| It's a free, private online journal with a focus on mental
| health.
|
| I spent $4k usd in the domain name in 2015 and around another $4k
| in operating costs since then.
|
| It has virtually zero marketing and has organically picked up
| around 1,500 users. I use it myself every day which is success
| enough for me. Fun project that has helped me land a few jobs,
| and my scant user base seems to dig it.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2021-02-01 23:03 UTC)