Killing ideas faster - typeofjust.in

If you read my blog about the side projects I have done, you can clearly see that I have a problem. The problem is, whenever an idea strikes, I start building it :)

The problem

I have made countless side projects. If I take a look at my drive, there are at least 50 projects. About 15 of them might've made it to the MVP (minimum viable product) and around 5–6 of them are actually launched.

This is the cycle.

I get an idea.
I open the terminal, install Laravel or Next.js.
Set up the boilerplate stuff (that's a lot).
Set up the boilerplate stuff (that's a lot).
By the time I get to the idea, I usually lose interest.

So, the problem is clear. I get too excited about some ideas, jump into coding without giving much thought, and lose interest halfway through.

How it should be

Before jumping into even writing a single line of code, I've learned to ask myself,

Is this problem worth solving?
Is this already solved, or can it be improved?
Is this something that I'm passionate about?

The third point is the most important one. If you are not passionate enough about something, the odds are that you won't go very far with it.

The idea might be good, it might be worth solving. But without the passion driving you to build it, you might not go very far. At least that's how it works in my case.

The solution

I've learned to deal with problems 1 and 2 with research.

Is this problem worth solving? Understand the problem, the users, and the pain points.
Is this already solved, or can it be improved? Understand the existing solutions, what are the limitations, etc.

Problem 3 is a bit tricky. I don’t think I can refrain from writing code. It’s a curse :D

But now there's a way to get some clarity in under an hour. This is where AI coding tools like v0 have been impactful. I can start with my ideas, and in a few minutes, I have a working prototype. I play around with it a little more, and I'll soon find out whether I care enough about this problem to build it.

Within 30 minutes, I have a working prototype. Beyond the working prototype, I get greater clarity on whether I care enough about this problem to build it.

And the good thing is, I’ve only spent significant time on one project, while discarding 5–10 others in just a couple of hours.

It's not perfect, but it's a lot better than before.