On Building Things You'll Throw Away

I used to feel guilty about side projects I never finished. There are folders on my hard drive full of half-baked ideas — abandoned todo apps, a sudoku solver that solved sudokus, a home automation system that automated nothing.

These days I think of them differently.

A weekend hack that taught you a new API is worth more than a polished app you’ll never launch. The throwaway code was the point. The artifact was a side effect of learning.

Three rules I try to follow

1. Give yourself permission to quit. Some ideas need a year, some need a Saturday. Knowing the difference only comes from doing both.
2. Optimize for what you learn, not what you ship. The sunk cost is fine. The opportunity cost of not starting the next thing is the real expense.
3. Archive it anyway. Future you, six months from now, will love seeing the mess you made.

The best portfolio isn’t a list of polished products. It’s a trail of breadcrumbs showing you actually think.