The ratio of ideas for side projects to actual vital energy to execute them is fairly loop-sided in my life, too much of the former. As a consequence, I often end up abandoning projects because I just thought of a more interesting idea that competes with the previous project's time. Most projects never see the light of day. This entry is dedicated to my current thought process on how to choose good side projects.
Good side projects should ideally:
Beyond this, I'm learning that I need to greatly reduce the scope of my side projects, to increase the chance of finishing them, otherwise I end up with a big pile of half-backed ideas. This is not something I necessarily desire out of a project, but feels more like a direct consequence of my inability to finish projects with larger scope.
Coming back to writing, and having a blog, I expect that being able to share some of my personal projects here will let me justify more of them as: social sharing experiences, because now I have an outlet to disseminate what I have done.