Last week I launched release.new. Yet another side project in 2024. Along the way, a few people have ask why. I've asked myself why. So here are my answers.

Why another side-project?

I have been very open in saying Shift will be my last project. I truly felt this way for years. But this has always been a half truth.

The reality is, I love programming. Even though I will likely retire with Shift, I'll always program. Whether it's the tech behind some other businesses or just some internal inventory system I write for my future woodshop, I'll always be coding.

So I have some gas in the tank, sort of speak. Last year I started seeing some opportunities. Normally I just put ideas on a list. But when I keep coming back to it, it's hard for me to ignore. So maybe I pour a little gas on it. See if there's a spark. That led to my last side-project - wppm.io. Now it has let to another. I don't know if any of these will catch fire. Again, I just love coding.

Why did I choose this side-project?

This idea has been on the list. I've tracked the Laravel releases for years. Not only to stay up-to-date on changes in the framework, but for Shift and my weekly Shifty Bits newsletter. In tracking all of those PRs, I had of course, written a little script. But I didn't take it any farther.

Then, as my open source project Blueprint gained more traction, I again felt the pain. This time as the maintainer. Having to write the release notes myself. Of course, GitHub has a little button to generate release notes. But it's very GitHub specific. It only lists Pull Requests and there aren't any formatting options. So you still have to do a lot of work to finalize the release notes.

I felt this was not only something I would use myself, but something I could make better than what existed. That's a good place to start from for a side-project. Or, sticking with our analogy, that's a good base for a fire.

Why pair on the side-project?

This is the question I was asked the most. Even from the beginning when I posted on Twitter. Without some of the snark, the question was basically, "can't I build this myself?"

Of course, I can build it myself. But pairing has a few advantages. First and foremost, Shift is my priority. I decided this years ago and am resolved in Shift being my primary focus. But as these side-project ideas resurface, I am allowing a secondary focus. So long as it does not take away from Shift.

So pairing with someone on a project provides extra capacity. In the very rare event one of these projects becomes successful, someone else is there. Someone who is familiar with the project from day one and cares for the project the way I do.

In addition, it's a social thing. Being a solo-founder of a SaaS can be a bit isolating. I work from home. Most of that time during a pandemic. I'm Dad to two toddlers. I don't get a lot of social interaction. Especially with fellow developers. So pairing a couple days a week, even remotely, allows me to be a bit social. That, in turn, keeps me motivated to work on the side-project.

Why did I choose Caen as my pair?

I was overwhelmed with responses from my post on Twitter. I immediately had to filter potential candidates by their skillset, communication, and overlap in workday. This helped narrow it down to about a dozen developers. I met with each of them. It was pretty hard to make a decision. In fact, I kept ended up pairing with a few candidates. For example, JT and I ended up working on something else.

In the end, I chose Caen for a few reasons. First and foremost, he was the developer of HydePHP. Which I recently used on The Shift Blog. I was impressed with the care of the code. For example, the heavy use of semantic tags and SEO markup.

Being the author of an open source, static site generator made him a clear choice for a pair.

Why work on a free side-project?

This was a question I asked myself. If I'm going to be taking time away from Shift, you would think I would want to see a return on that time. Again, Shift is a successful SaaS. So if I spent the same time on Shift, that would likely yield a return.

I think the easy answer follows the same lines – I like what I do. Shift gives me a lot of flexibility. But I still only work on Shift. Even if it's just a few hours, working on the same thing can lead to burnout. Taking a few weeks off to work on a side-project ultimately revives me to work on Shift. Especially as we enter the release season.

Also, I've seen too many people take side-projects and attempt to monetize them immediately. I think some things need to be free. I've heard this from Adam Wathan, and seen it demonstrated by developers like Caleb Porzio. I'm fortunate with Shift. So I'd rather this side-project be free and get use, than attempt to monetize it from only a few users.

That's not to say release.new won't have paid features ever. But generating release notes for open source projects will always be free.