As someone whose able to build software, and has done professionally for quite a while now, it can be hard to put yourself back in those early days of when you used to do all this stuff for fun without a care in the world. That’s something I’ve been trying to get back to recently, and the way I’ve been able to do it is to write just software for me.

Every day at work and elsewhere on the internet (if you just look at almost any news source around technology), you’re bombarded with success stories and what it takes to build a successful software business. How in order to succeed you should do X or use Y. These unicorn companies are making their founders rich beyond reason, and you should be trying to do the same.

The problem is if you’re looking into doing something because it piques your interest, it can be extremely demotivating to listen to all of this noise. All of a sudden it seems like a whole lot of work when all you wanted to do was see if you could write your own RSS client.

So over the last few months I’ve been writing little pieces of software just for me. There’s no exit strategy, no grand plans, no business. Just software. Tiny little things that are useful to me and probably me alone. None of them even have a way to sign up or log in!

I think this is a part of programming that has been lost over time: when we used to build things for building things sake. Not because we thought it was going to lead to something grander, or even look good on your CV. Or maybe it’s just that I’ve lost touch of it because I’ve been in the professional space for so long and not a hobbyist.

So here’s to the hobby builders and people doing things for fun. Something I’d recommend for all my fellow professional programmers out there: go and write a program for you.