Working on digital projects has melted into my daily routine. I've spent 20 years tinkering online.
It started in middle school with a YouTube channel I ran with my best friends. We published everything from skateboarding videos to the infamous 'Banana Hands', a documentary about having bananas for hands.
Why spend hours editing YouTube videos as a kid? It wasn't to become Mr Beast. We did it because it was fun. An excuse to hang, be silly, and create with no rules.
In my 20s, something changed. The expectation to make money started creeping in, and the ideas I worked on changed. They became more business focused. How could it generate traffic for ads? What market would be best? How would it get customers?
This led me on a solo five year journey of building a social media marketing business for realtors. I thought it would be my ticket to financial freedom, but it was a lonely grind. Hours spent alone in my bedroom filming Instagram Reels with social media tips for realtors. Eventually I shut the business down.
So now I'm in my 30s and continuing to work on ideas. It's just become part of my daily routine. Eat, sleep, drink, and push PRs to Github. But I've started reflecting on which ideas to continue working on.
Not sure I have the answer. At the moment my philosophy is to build ideas for myself and share them with others. My current project, RSStoKindle.com is a tool to send blogs and articles to my Kindle. I actually have it set up to send the day's top Bear Blog posts to my Kindle every morning.
Like most people, I have the nasty habit of waking up and scrolling the news. But it started my day off feeling really overwhelmed, so this project is a little nudge to get me to open my Kindle in the morning. It lets you choose only the authors or sites you want to read, instead of an algorithmic feed. I could go on a whole rant why RSS could save the internet, but will hold that for another time.
I'm trying to keep my expectations low. Have fun, create something for myself, and connect with others. I've started a YouTube channel so maybe I'll publish some more silly videos :)