“This is my video game.”
That’s how HubSpot founder & CTO Dharmesh Shah describes his side projects.
In a recent interview, he said:
“𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘥𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩. 𝘐 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩. 𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺; 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘧𝘵. … 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘺 𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘰 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘣𝘴𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢 𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵.”
This line hits home for me. I never played “normal” video games much in my life. My game has always been software development. Tweak some code, see the system level up. It is an infinite game.
For 20 years at Paessler, that game grew into software used by 500,000 people worldwide every day. Every successful product I’ve helped build started as a side project, with long periods of playful tinkering before value emerged.
Even now, at Carbon Drawdown Initiative, my “side quests” have produced wireless sensors, cloud-based data pipelines, and even an award-winning army of autonomous fluxmeters. Each project deepened my understanding of the climate problems we’re tackling.
What side project are you so obsessed about that it drives you into infinite learning feedback loops?