Joy projects

Joy projects

This started off as a post about yourlocalhero.app , the side project taking most of my current focus. Yourlocalhero is something I’ve worked on in my spare time over the last few years. But I realised what’s more important is why I get drawn to work on these type of projects in the first place. And I think it’s Joy. I’ve heard a term ‘Joy project’ before and it stuck with me. It makes more sense to me to refer to it as ‘Joy project’ than a hobby, side project or a side hustle. This work brings me joy, so I wanted to dive deeper into how and why that is.

In my day job, I work as a product manager. I love building new tech and managing the pipeline of bringing pixels to life. What happens with large teams though is that as a product manager you end up doing a lot of document writing, approvals, compliance, meetings and all the in-between manure which comes with it. Some of it is great, some of it is not so much fun, but the reality is - you don’t end up building much, if anything, yourself.

You also don’t really know what it’s like to build a digital product from scratch until you do it yourself. There is something special when you figure out a product from inception, to connecting the database to front end. Even things like pushing something live to production after syncing your local development build feels different when you had to do it yourself and not rely on the developers and release teams.

I also love startups. I like the thrill and the idea of it. The rush, adrenaline, is something I think I would enjoy doing at some point by devoting it my full focus. At this point though, I prefer to do what I’m doing - be part of a large team and be there for my family. Having the little startup feel in my own playground gives me best of both worlds. It gives me joy.

I weanted to dive deeper into this source of good energy we get from doing something we love. Why is it so much fun?

One reason is freedom. The freedom to pick up an idea and find a path you want to make it come to life. I picked on an idea that I couldn’t shake of: how do I get locals to iron an deliver my business shirts to my door? I found a path of learning how to create a web app, and connected some of my experience in design, code and business to build a prototype. Just as any product manager, there are many options to choose from, and it comes down to picking what to do next. But there is something special about having the freedom and a simple choice based purely on your own guiding principles.

There is also flow. I do get into a flow state when working with teams, and it gives me the buzz when I get things shipped. But getting into flow on some nights on weekends when working on the joy project is next level. The feeling of spending hours finding a solution, fixing a bug or getting a feature to work and seeing it live at the end of the grueling session, is magical.

So this is why I do it, for fun, the excitement and the state of flow I get from it. Whether it’s this place, vergeCo, Yourlocalhero, or something else - I think I will keep doing it as long as I’m alive.