Side Projects Are Serendipity Machines
Marty Bell, creator of Poolsuite:
I’ve been building on this thing w/ my internet homies for like 10yrs and I’ve never believed more in building something with the sole purpose of making your life more interesting.Side projects are serendipity machines. Just start shipping things relating to your deepest interests, even if what you put out is a tiny seed of a larger idea, just start moving. It’ll help you find your people.
This lil site/app has spawned the fastest growing sun care company in America, we’ve thrown parties all over the world - in a mansion with Ralph Lauren - in the legendary Pikes Hotel in Ibiza - with 1000 ppl poolside at the Standard Miami - and I feel like we haven’t even scratched the surface of what we can do with this thing yet. 10 years in! Still excited! Because I haven’t burnt myself out chasing money with it.
People burn themselves out building a business to make money, to buy a more exciting life. But you can also just build a thing that gives you the exciting life, and that can be a side project you spend a couple evenings a month on…
"Side projects as serendipity machines"...for testing the world, discovering meaning and finding your people. Culturematics.
Maja Wilbrink on how to enter side doors:
Then, sometimes, a signal begins to form.A person notices your work, or you notice a company that seems to be solving a problem you genuinely care about. Someone has a need that is not yet a job description. Someone writes something that makes you think, I want to work with that mind. You send an email that is too earnest but specific enough to land. You make a thing in public and it travels to the exact person who needs it.
A career begins, sometimes, as signal in the (velvet!) noise.
The side project makes the signal. The signal opens a side door.