A presentation at Refresh Portland in in Portland, OR, USA by Tyler Sticka
SIDE PROJECTS THAT SHIP
@tylersticka
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When do you sleep?
Making Time
“Creative pursuits away from work seem to have a direct effect on factors such as creative problem solving and helping others while on the job. It can be rare in research to find that what we do in our personal time is related to our behaviors in the workplace, and not just how we feel.” — Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology
1 day
work
rest
recreation
I’M JUST SO BUSY…
Making Progress
“Nothing just worked, so I started hacking something together for myself and then realized it could solve these problems for a lot of other people.” — Drew Houston
“My whole career has been me trying to find new ways to communicate with people, because I desperately want to communicate with people, but I don’t want the messy interaction of having to make friends and talk to people, because I probably won’t like them.” — Edmund McMillen Indie Game: The Movie
“Success can mean many different things, and the beauty of a side project is that you get to define that success for yourself.” — Rachel Andrew The Profitable Side Project Handbook
“I don’t know about you but I need a goal to learn a skill. I can’t deconstruct and just learn welding for welding’s sake. I need to have something that only welding will bring me.” — Adam Savage Adam Savage’s 10 Commandments of Making
Project Goals Personal Goals
Project Goals Personal Goals (kEep yoU fOcuSed) (kEep yoU EngaGed)
(whatever works for you)
(whatever works for you)
“A bit of time spent on setup and admin will enable you to sit down and start work more quickly — giving you less opportunity for procrastination!” — Rachel Andrew The Profitable Side Project Handbook
Sarah Parmenter (You Know Who) Matias Corea (Behance) Massimo Vignelli David Gardner (Double Fine)
Make Progress Review Goals
“Damn perfection. You don’t have to be perfect. You are never going to do a Sistine Chapel, unless someone ties you to a ceiling. Damn perfection.” — Jack Kirby
Accomplish your goals and ship…
…or fail, and move on.
“…failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.” — J.K. Rowling
“When we look at films we’ve made, all we can see are the flaws […] unless I start working on a new one, I’ll never be free from the curse of the last one.” — Hayao Miyazaki
How do I find a ? noun (occupation)
How do I find a DevEloper ? noun (occupation)
Working together is hard…
…even if you’re amazing.
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Have you asked someone you know for feedback?
Have you asked someone you know for feedback? Have you asked someone you didn’t know for feedback?
Have you asked someone you know for feedback? Have you asked someone you didn’t know for feedback? Did you try (and fail at) doing the job yourself already?
Have you asked someone you know for feedback? Have you asked someone you didn’t know for feedback? Did you try (and fail at) doing the job yourself already? Have you shipped something entirely on your own before?
Have you asked someone you know for feedback? Have you asked someone you didn’t know for feedback? Did you try (and fail at) doing the job yourself already? Have you shipped something entirely on your own before? Are you prepared to bring more than ideas to a collaboration?
Thoughtfully manage your recreational time.
Maintain focus.
Identify your motivations.
Define personal and project goals.
Setup and admin up-front.
Iterate rapidly.
Fail often.
Collaborate well or not at all.
Ship when it’s done (not perfect).
And remember…
“Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.” — Kurt Vonnegut A Man Without a Country
Thank you! tylersticka.com twitter.com/tylersticka Apologies to DC Comics for my mangling of Detective Comics No. 38 and Star Spangled Comics No. 65. These swell designers made their lovely icons available via The Noun Project: Andy Fuchs Television Edward Boatman Stroller Lemon Liu Marriage Lisa Staudinger Snowflake Narcisse Video Game Controller Nathan Thomson Light Bulb Pham Thi Dieu Linh Apple Stanislav Levin Martini Glass Stills or excerpts from film, television, comics, music or literature in this presentation are © their respective owners. Their usage here is intended only for critique, comment or research.
Starting a side project is easy. Finishing one? That’s a whole lot tougher. Is there a secret to being prolific part-time? What separates the countless projects languishing on hard drives from the few that see the light of day?
Join Tyler Sticka (Cloud Four designer/developer and creator of numerous side projects) for a discussion on how to identify your best ideas, focus on the right goals, eliminate cruft and maintain your interest level so you can complete your labor of love without losing sleep, your job or your mind.
(Note: Presentation includes a J.K. Rowling quote from before her questionable opinions were well known. Trans rights are human rights!)
for free. You
can too.