Too many ideas, not enough time

2 min read

  • technical
  • question

Published on August 06, 2023

Disclaimer: the title is a question. Spoiler alert: I still don't have an answer for this.

As a programmer, I find myself facing a common predicament: an abundance of fascinating ideas waiting to be explored, but a lack of time to pursue them all.

Some of these ideas are functional, aimed at improving my quality of life, while others are purely for learning purposes. Here are a few projects I have planned:

Here are some things I have planned include:

  • Developing a Windows-like file explorer for Mac using Rust. The main goal would be to learn Rust. [Functional & Learning]
    • Honestly, I could do it in JS, but I want to learn a systems programming language. I have some knowledge of C++, but I believe Rust offers more flexibility in terms of what I can do with it, such as web development, app development, game development, etc.

  • Creating a platform for storing items. [Functional & Learning]
    • I prefer not to reveal too much about this idea.

  • Designing a better Hacker News reader with a side pane view. [Functional]

  • Exploring computer graphics. (Learning)
    • This sounds incredibly cool. The other day, I watched a video of someone constructing a red rectangle on the screen, and it was absolutely fascinating. I would love to be able to do that.

  • Developing a "garbage collector" for removing unused images in Logseq. (Functional)
    • I could try implementing garbage collection concepts here.

  • Building a Hacker News plugin for Logseq. (Functional)
    • It would be really cool to be able to read Hacker News feeds from Logseq.

  • Building a parser in rust (Learning)

  • Implementing Game of Life (Learning)

  • Implementing diff algorithm (Learning)

As you can see, this is the dilemma I face. It might not be unique; someone out there is likely experiencing the same issue. Let me know if anyone has any practical solutions to this.

Something I'm trying to do is to maintain two active projects and work on them alternatively. Having too many projects could result in no progress in any of them, while having only one project could lead to boredom. I believe having two projects strikes a good balance.