--- title: Stop building side projects. Nobody cares — and here's... description: A developer argues that side projects have lost their signaling value now that AI can scaffold a polished app in an afternoon, making 'I built X repos'... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/stop-building-side-projects-nobody-cares-and-here-s-the-uncomfortable-math--azxnbhn3v twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Stop building side projects. Nobody cares — and here's the uncomfortable math. | daily.dev og:description: A developer argues that side projects have lost their signaling value now that AI can scaffold a polished app in an afternoon, making 'I built X repos'... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/stop-building-side-projects-nobody-cares-and-here-s-the-uncomfortable-math--azxnbhn3v og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/AzxnBHN3V.png og:image:alt: Stop building side projects. Nobody cares — and here's the uncomfortable math. og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Stop building side projects. Nobody cares — and here's the uncomfortable math. **[DEV](https://daily.dev/sources/devto)** · 8 min read · 48 upvotes · 20 comments ## Summary A developer argues that side projects have lost their signaling value now that AI can scaffold a polished app in an afternoon, making 'I built X repos' meaningless to recruiters. The real argument: the hard part was never writing code, it was getting a real stranger to use, depend on, and be hurt by your product — that's where genuine engineering judgment is forged. The piece urges builders to ship one thing to one real user rather than accumulating unused repos, using a personal 'ack-before-persist' production bug as the example of a lesson only a real user could teach. The comment section adds nuance: some 'dead' side projects are stepping stones toward living ones, and writing/publishing to an audience can itself count as shipping to strangers who can judge you. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@dustysheldon** · 35 upvotes > Sure, from a narrow build-count-as-metric perspective this tracks — but there’s so much other value in side projects: workshopping ideas, learning new tech/flows, filling a niche community need… 🤷‍♂️ **@thegatoomeow** · 30 upvotes > Side projects should be the foundation of every developer, it helps with creativity, imagination and the 'release' of energy of things we wish we had. It is never a waster of time or money. Never stop building. **@matheusluiz74** · 15 upvotes > The thing is not just doing side projects, its how you do them. The thing about side projects is not the side project itself, its the thinking process behind it, which invalidates this whole article. **@iaparatudia** · 8 upvotes > I agree that “I built 12 repos” stopped being a signal the moment AI could scaffold a polished demo in an afternoon. > > Where I push back is treating side projects only as recruiter theater. The ones that still matter to me are closer to product labs: a real user, a real constraint, a domain you have to freeze. > > I’ve been building small operational systems (scheduling, intake, clinical/ops workflows). Nobody needs to clap for the repo. The value is learning how ideas survive contact with edge cases, permissions, pricing rules, and messy humans. > > So yeah: stop collecting side projects as résumé... **@debajyatidey** · 8 upvotes > useless article ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [The Developer I'm Grateful I Never Became](https://daily.dev/posts/the-developer-i-m-grateful-i-never-became-7rcp6jrje) · DEV · 57 upvotes · 2 comments - [Stop Waiting for the Big Idea. Ship the Small App.](https://daily.dev/posts/stop-waiting-for-the-big-idea-ship-the-small-app--gdne2u1kz) · Medium · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#webdev](https://daily.dev/tags/webdev), [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career), [#productivity](https://daily.dev/tags/productivity), [#ai-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-coding) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/stop-building-side-projects-nobody-cares-and-here-s-the-uncomfortable-math--azxnbhn3v) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Stop building side projects. 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Nobody cares — and here's the uncomfortable math."}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/stop-building-side-projects-nobody-cares-and-here-s-the-uncomfortable-math--azxnbhn3v","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"Sure, from a narrow build-count-as-metric perspective this tracks — but there’s so much other value in side projects: workshopping ideas, learning new tech/flows, filling a niche community need… 🤷‍♂️","datePublished":"2026-09-25T13:55:09.007Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/AzxnBHN3V#c-YPQVyC1fv","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Dusty Sheldon","url":"https://daily.dev/dustysheldon","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/30704778?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":35}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Side projects should be the foundation of every developer, it helps with creativity, imagination and the ‘release’ of energy of things we wish we had. It is never a waster of time or money. Never stop building.","datePublished":"2026-09-25T18:04:01.586Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/AzxnBHN3V#c-Ui8iN3JW5","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"The Gatoo Meow","url":"https://daily.dev/thegatoomeow","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/AGNmyxa8bkG8FWlLnHE5p6Vp7TubCfYOJFfZBVefVo5M=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":30}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"The thing is not just doing side projects, its how you do them. The thing about side projects is not the side project itself, its the thinking process behind it, which invalidates this whole article.","datePublished":"2026-09-25T18:10:31.896Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/AzxnBHN3V#c-IzZC6nkKN","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Matheus Luiz","url":"https://daily.dev/matheusluiz74","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/33574469?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":15}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I agree that “I built 12 repos” stopped being a signal the moment AI could scaffold a polished demo in an afternoon.\nWhere I push back is treating side projects only as recruiter theater. The ones that still matter to me are closer to product labs: a real user, a real constraint, a domain you have to freeze.\nI’ve been building small operational systems (scheduling, intake, clinical/ops workflows). Nobody needs to clap for the repo. The value is learning how ideas survive contact with edge cases, permissions, pricing rules, and messy humans.\nSo yeah: stop collecting side projects as résumé ornaments. Don’t stop building things that force you to make product decisions.","datePublished":"2026-09-25T22:04:33.160Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/AzxnBHN3V#c-JVmulHdWb","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Julius AQ","url":"https://daily.dev/iaparatudia","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--fyjHBSHd--/f_auto/v1790748730/avatars/avatar_zkzgTvNwPFu9mYCQDVZ6R?_a=BAMAMicg0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":8}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"useless article","datePublished":"2026-09-25T18:42:56.642Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/AzxnBHN3V#c-IIOV7ZHHd","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Debajyati Dey","url":"https://daily.dev/debajyatidey","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/127122455?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":8}}]} ```