You don’t need a side project

Your job is a JOB.

It adds some adrenaline and blood rush of imagining a new project though.

You sometimes need to start a new side project.

except that my job, which is some of the best paying jobs in my country, is not enough for me to buy a home and start a family. So I do need a side project. But fuck me that inflation went up 9% and both house prices and rents have gone through the roof, so that not even a bank may be willing to lend me the money I need for a decent home right?

@Hazarth that's side hustle. Side project is something you get with your normal meal, like a salad.

@gymnasium ...And your side project is a SIDE PROJECT? I can do this!! Go on, ask me what my cat is.

@spongegeoff geez that shook me.
Imagine your side project being a SIDE PROJECT after all those work... Yikes...

Yup and my job is my passion. So yep, I need side projects cause I still ain't doing company stuff for free

I need atleast one decent side project in order to get more practice and feedback from seniors so I could grow into atleast a mid dev faster. Weekly code review in the job is not enough for me. Also Im tired of doing tech tasks during interviews, would rather prefer just dropping them a link to my repo where they could see what I can do and what are my standards and if they want we can have a call and discuss the decisions made.

What if I want to support my hobby?

@Hazarth maybe you're in the wrong country in the first place

Leaving aside I'm not sure if OP straight-up believes this or is being ironic:

A) I need a creative outlet where I am doing something with my vision (and the vision of people close to me). When I am doing my job I am doing things according to other people's ideas of what should be done. If you don't have a strong vision yourself, fine...

B) I need to know how to architect stuff properly and be responsible for anything that doesn't work on any level, as far away from the mistakes of others as possible. If you look at the code of other people who have never taken that responsibility on themselves it can lack complete system understanding and foresight. It's not a magical panacea, as I have seen people with side projects still make horrible mistakes of structure. I also think it's possible, and necessary, to infer from existing products and industry experts, but personal knowledge derived from own projects without the clutter definitely helps.

@PeterDCarter I'd have +ed what you said twice, if that were possible. Puts into words the benefit I've had from being able to develop my skills free from the restrictions that go with being managed and needing the time spent to be justifiable, whilst still having objectives in mind and users to please.

@melezorus34 well, that changes everything!

In that case I need tons of side projects! I wouldn't enjoy programming if I didn't know how to have fun with it. Doing only my job would suck all the fun of it + doing side projects gives you more and more experience and keeps you up to date just as a side effect!

Really everyone should have side projects, but obviously not everyone loves programming as much as I do :(

Okay, as no-one has got it, here's the answer: my cat is a CAT. Although, strangely, my dog is a B*ASTARD.

@spongegeoff my cat is just a machine for knocking stuff off shelves as far as I can tell

@spongegeoff a BLASTARD? nice pokemon

@melozorus34 ? It's a Bulgarian Astard

I don’t need a side project ? Guess I’m ditching work then, gonna enjoy my main project: having a life