Side Projects with Friends

A friend and I recently started working on a little side project. It had been over a year since we last worked on anything together before starting this little adventure. The original idea for the project came from his wife and her love of reading. In the short weeks we have been working on this together, many opportunities have become apparent to me that are worth sharing.

First and foremost, we no longer have a reason to skip out on the "we should go do something together" line that never gets planned and executed. Instead, we have a usual night to hop online and work together to make progress, socialize, and sometimes test out our new comedic material. Depending on the night's mood or the happenings of that day, the project may progress nicely or not at all. Sometimes, our comedic material is what advances the furthest.

Next, we have been great at sharing what we have learned since last working together on a project. This activity has been great for both of us, seeing what each of us has gathered since working together. When teaching the idea to the other, we selfishly solidify our understanding of the topic. This exchange also expands our ideas on how we may be able to use the technology or idea in other areas of our work. As part of the sharing process, debates have started on the usefulness of technology. Leading the conversation into where the technology fits in the overall software development domain and how organizations may leverage it in several ways to progress their agenda. These conversations definitely take away from the progress of the project, as they can be quite time-consuming. However, our goal is to not only complete a project. Our goal is to sharpen our skills and critical thinking.

One aspect we have never explicitly talked about but have agreed to by our technology choices is to use this for experimentation purposes. The nature of the project is an open opportunity to branch out and discover what we do not know about our industry. Using tools and technology that we do not come across in our daily work. One area of experimentation focus is cost reduction. Discovering what tools are out there to host a side project that fits the requirements of the project and has little to no recurring costs.

As we continue working on this side project, there are many more learnings to be had, more silly jokes to be made, and debates to end with "I think you are crazy". The journey is what matters. We will gain some additional knowledge in our area of expertise, we will form a tighter bond as friends and share in all of it. The next time you are thinking of a little side project, ask that friend if they are interested in giving it a try with you.