I Spent Too Long on My Side Project. Was It Worth It?

My Opus, My Achievement… or My Mistake? #

Someone on r/sideproject called their work their “opus.” Not their MVPP (minimum viable PowerPoint presentation). Not their weekend hack. Their opus. Obvious question: is it a good thing to treat a side project like Beethoven’s Ninth, or is this just glorified scope creep wrapped in a romantic bow?

I’ll answer: it depends who you’re doing this for.

The Problem: The Perfection Trap #

Side projects are weirdly, stupidly seductive. They start as tiny ideas—“I’ll make a PMP certificate tracker”—but grow and grow until they’re entire platforms with animated dashboards, a custom backend, and three different login methods (OAuth, SSO, and, of course, “Login with GitHub”). By the time you’re publishing to the App Store, you’re 1,000 hours deep and praying someone other than your mom installs it.

One redditor laid it out perfectly: “I spent the better part of six months building this, thinking of every edge case. At the end of the day, no one cared but me.”

Harsh? Maybe. But true.

Why This Happens (Hint: It’s NOT Just Overengineering) #

Sure, it’s easy to blame overengineering. You spent an afternoon automating your dependencies with Ansible because why not? It’s fun. It’s clean. It scratches the itch.

But here’s what actually traps people: validation feels unsexy.

Building is fun. Tracking user growth via analytics or scraping feedback from r/sysadmin? Not fun. Shipping something half-baked is scary, and user research is boring. So we build and refine until “ready” becomes “perfect,” and perfect becomes never.

You tell yourself, “This needs better SEO,” “I’ll refactor this one last time,” or “I’ll add billing later.” Spoiler: later is a lie you tell yourself.

What Matters in 2026 (and Why This Cycle Gets Worse) #

Look, it’s 2026. Tools move faster than your keyboard shortcuts.

• AI copilots like GitHub Copilot X already write boilerplate better than you.
• Hosting is cheaper than ever: Hetzner gives you 4 vCPUs and 8GB RAM for €20/mo.
• Frameworks like Next.js or Astro remove half your setup time. Projects ship fast now.

The era of spending two years hand-coding a CRUD app with your “perfect stack” (Docker + Kubernetes + RabbitMQ because minimalism is for the weak) is dead. Someone else will get there faster, and possibly worse, before you’re even done.

Still, some projects absolutely should be your magnum opus. This is overkill for most people, but if the process matters more than the outcome—if you’re learning or building something deeply meaningful—then yeah, go for broke. Just don’t gaslight yourself into thinking it’s necessary.

My Take: Ink or Ship? #

Rule of thumb: if this project vanished tomorrow, would you feel creatively empty or just relieved? That’s your clue about whether to keep going.

For practical folks, ink it or ship it by day 30.

Make a tiny MVP. Throw it into the wild. Does anyone click? Does anyone even open it? If yes, build more. If not, cut your losses or pivot. “Opus” energy is wasted unless you’re solving a big, deep need—or itching a personal one. Want inspiration? Look at Pieter Levels (@levelsio). The dude churns out simple, focused projects like Remote OK or Nomad List that solve clear, personal pain points. And you know what? People like simple.

Reminders Before You Build Your Own Opus #

1. Your side project isn’t your identity. It’s a sandbox.
2. You can always add features later. It’s impossible to subtract time spent.
3. Nobody notices how hard you worked. They notice whether it’s useful.

Side projects are great for personal growth. Just make sure you’re growing towards finishing, not just flexing.

No FAQs here. Just go build something meaningful—or tiny. Both are valid.