Remember when you first started learning programming? Oh those dreams! So many things you could build. So many problems you could solve. So many fun ideas you could chase down rabbit holes with nothing but curiosity as your compass.

Then you eventually got a job, and this superpower-of-a-skill became your bread and butter. Don’t get me wrong, you still had a lot of fun! Faced with a new challenge every day.

Somewhere along the way, the thrill started getting replaced by targets, standups, and sprint fatigue. As you sharpened your soft, hard, and everything-in-between skills, you eventually started being called a senior engineer. Much pride. Also, much responsibility. You still face a monstrous challenge every once in a while that shoots your adrenaline through the roof!

But somewhere along the way, something shifted. Maybe it was the process—the meetings, the deadlines, the subtle pressure to always be “impactful.” Maybe it was the optimization of everything: time, effort, creativity, even joy. You got good at your craft, no doubt. But the joy was replaced by Jira.

What happened to that zealous one in you that wanted to solve every problem they could possibly imagine? 

Sure, you could argue that the work you did and do already solves a very big problem and helps a ton of customers. And I don’t doubt that! But it is also very important to use the skills you honed to build small tools, build silly and goofy side-projects, to build specific solution for people around you. You my friend have been blessed with this brilliant mind! Use that to do more than just “work”. Not to enhance your portfolio, do it to gift yourself the joy of building! 

What did I build? 

Good question! In the recent times, I built – 

• A frontpage and online product catalogue for my best friend’s local garment business.

• A dead-simple web app to carry-out local knockout tournaments for my weekly game of badminton with some friends.

• A mobile app for simple on-site order logging for a friend’s business.

• That’s it! 

I know, too short of a list! But this blog post is a call for action for myself to build more things for pure joy! What brings me joy, identifying problems around me and building simple solutions for them. And I’m gonna continue doing it. I hope you will too! Such projects are perfect candidates for vibe-coding: where you care more about the outcome than the underlying technical details. Even more of a reason for you to DO IT!