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SIDE PROJECTS THAT SHIP
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@tylersticka
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=
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When do
you sleep?
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Making Time
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“Creative pursuits away from work seem to have a direct
effect on factors such as creative problem solving and
helping others while on the job. It can be rare in research
to find that what we do in our personal time is related to
our behaviors in the workplace, and not just how we feel.”
— Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology
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1 day
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work
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rest
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recreation
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I’M JUST SO BUSY...
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Making Progress
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“Nothing just worked, so I started hacking
something together for myself and then
realized it could solve these problems for
a lot of other people.”
— Drew Houston
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“My whole career has been me trying to find new ways to
communicate with people, because I desperately want
to communicate with people, but I don’t want the messy
interaction of having to make friends and talk to people,
because I probably won’t like them.”
— Edmund McMillen
Indie Game: The Movie
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“Success can mean many different things, and
the beauty of a side project is that you get to
define that success for yourself.”
— Rachel Andrew
The Profitable Side Project Handbook
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“I don’t know about you but I need a
goal to learn a skill. I can’t deconstruct
and just learn welding for welding’s sake.
I need to have something that only weld-
ing will bring me.”
— Adam Savage
Adam Savage’s 10 Commandments of Making
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Project Goals Personal Goals
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Project Goals Personal Goals
(kEep yoU fOcuSed) (kEep yoU EngaGed)
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(whatever works for you)
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(whatever works for you)
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“A bit of time spent on setup and
admin will enable you to sit down
and start work more quickly —
giving you less opportunity for
procrastination!”
— Rachel Andrew
The Profitable Side Project Handbook
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Matias Corea (Behance)
Massimo Vignelli
David Gardner (Double Fine)
Sarah Parmenter (You Know Who)
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Make Progress Review Goals
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“Damn perfection. You don’t have to
be perfect. You are never going to do
a Sistine Chapel, unless someone ties
you to a ceiling. Damn perfection.”
— Jack Kirby
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Accomplish your
goals and ship...
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...or fail, and move on.
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“...failure meant a stripping
away of the inessential. I
stopped pretending to my-
self that I was anything other
than what I was, and began
to direct all my energy into
finishing the only work that
mattered to me.”
— J.K. Rowling
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“When we look at films we’ve made, all
we can see are the flaws [...] unless I
start working on a new one, I’ll never
be free from the curse of the last one.”
— Hayao Miyazaki
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How do I find
a ?
noun (occupation)
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How do I find
a ?
noun (occupation)
DevEloper
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Working together is hard...
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...even if you’re amazing.
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Have you asked someone you know for feedback?
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Have you asked someone you know for feedback?
Have you asked someone you didn’t know for feedback?
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Have you asked someone you know for feedback?
Have you asked someone you didn’t know for feedback?
Did you try (and fail at) doing the job yourself already?
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Have you asked someone you know for feedback?
Have you asked someone you didn’t know for feedback?
Did you try (and fail at) doing the job yourself already?
Have you shipped something entirely on your own before?
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Have you asked someone you know for feedback?
Have you asked someone you didn’t know for feedback?
Did you try (and fail at) doing the job yourself already?
Have you shipped something entirely on your own before?
Are you prepared to bring more than ideas to a collaboration?
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Thoughtfully manage your recreational time.
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Maintain focus.
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Identify your motivations.
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Define personal and project goals.
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Setup and admin up-front.
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Iterate rapidly.
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Fail often.
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Collaborate well or not at all.
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Ship when it’s done (not perfect).
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And remember...
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“Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a
way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing
in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write
a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well
as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward.
You will have created something.”
— Kurt Vonnegut
A Man Without a Country
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Thank you!
tylersticka.com
twitter.com/tylersticka
These swell designers made their lovely icons
available via The Noun Project:
Andy Fuchs Television
Edward Boatman Stroller
Lemon Liu Marriage
Lisa Staudinger Snowflake
Narcisse Video Game Controller
Nathan Thomson Light Bulb
Pham Thi Dieu Linh Apple
Stanislav Levin Martini Glass
Stills or excerpts from film, television, comics,
music or literature in this presentation are ©
their respective owners. Their usage here is
intended only for critique, comment or research.
Apologies to DC Comics for my mangling of Detective Comics
No. 38 and Star Spangled Comics No. 65.