Let's take few minutes to talk about project ideas. A lot of people seem to ask these kinds of question: "I've learned this, this, and that. What should I learn/do next?". And then people would tell them: "Build tons of projects". This time is usually the time they feel there is gap in their knowledge. I'm saying these from experience. It happens to most of us...
"Hey dude! Go build cool stuff!" That's what they would normally say to you. It's not that they are wrong. It is just that, you don't seem to know what to build.
And, the somewhat boring part is that when you search for project ideas (for what to build), you'll usually see something like todo list, calculator, pomodoro timer, see this one I've built 😄, and so on.
These things are not bad. But I guess you want something that is actually useful and more challenging maybe.
If that's what you want, don't worry. I've got something to tell you. But this thing I'm about to tell you, I feel you're not going to like it.
Okay, how about this? Imagine that you were with your friends and you said something they didn't like. And just like that, all of them removed their footwear and started hitting you with it.
That's what I imagine you're going to do when I tell you this - hit me with your footwear!
Alright. The thing is that you should not search for project ideas
Yeah. You should not search. The reason why I said this is because there are lots of project ideas only if we pay close attention to our environment.
https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/n4mh5ixeru4f6q3g8lsn.jpg
Take this as an example. There was this twit by Evan You, the man behind Vue.js. In the twit he said that "CSS is hard". Take a look at the bottom-right corner of the image above. You'd see better.
This is what I was saying - paying close attention to our environment. It's not that Google couldn't do this right. It's just that CSS codes work differently on different devices. This is my opinion though.
After seeing this twit, I decided to build something - a user feedback box. The idea was that since developers can't see the representation of their codes on different devices, it makes a lot of sense to integrate a feedback box into their websites/web apps.
With this feedback box users could anonymously share their experience with the use of the website/web app. Hey, this may sound dump to you but it made perfect sense to me the time I was thinking it.
In fact, I was seeing a great success in building the box (one of the simplest react applications 😆) Not until I decided to deploy it. I tried Netlify, gh-pages, none worked. I read lots of docs but I coudn't just get it right. So I gave up... ☹️
Oh no! I've gone too far. The main thing here is to share with you how to get project ideas.
You just need to think and ask yourself questions. Thanks to nature that humans are creative, unlike AIs. The project you think of may seem too big for you. But, you can always build it with someone else.
Pro tip: Build a blog/website first where you share what you've learned. Just like this one]
Think of something that might be useful to you or someone else - not boring todo lists all the time. No! Not again...
It's always a fun way to learn - challenging your abilities. So, don't overthink. You'd be marveled at how much you can do when you start asking questions and reading docs.
Hey awesome, don't be like me that gave up on my feedback box because I couldn't deploy it
"Hi guys! I've got this project idea where users of the app could do this and that. The only thing is that I don't think I can do it alone. Anybody willing to work with me?".
What it would take you is to explain your idea very well. And that's it. You'd get the chance to work with someone else. Codding needs lots of collaboration. You'd get the chance to learn from the person. Just don't hold back on big ideas.
Oh! Are you afraid that someone might steal your amazing idea? Me too! But what can we do about it? If we keep on holding back on it, waiting till we get ready to implement it, someone else might produce something that is even better. The game changes, a lot!
So, you may decide to think and ask yourself questions in order to come up with useful project ideas
Or, you may decide to remove your footwear in order to hit me with it. Unfortunately, you can't reach me 😝
Perhaps, you may keep on asking: "what are the best projects for beginner JavaScript developer?", "what project should I work on as an intermediate python developer?", and the question continues...
Whichever one you decide to do, I wish you good luck. Bye! 👋
Top comments (0)