When to kill a side project: the day you knew.
Knowing when to kill a side project often comes down to one date you already recognise. For Diego, it was the week forty-five access keys produced two live signals, both his own test scripts. After that day, everything was optional, and he knew it.
A sentence that asks nothing of you.
On Sunday evenings he told himself the buyers had long evaluation cycles. That sentence was true, because evaluation cycles are real. However, it required nothing from him, so it got chosen without anyone noticing a choice.
Meanwhile, he checked the dashboard twice a day and saw the same flat line.
When to kill a side project that never bills you.
The infrastructure runs itself, renews its own certificates and costs almost nothing while idle. As a result, no moment forces a human to approve its existence. In fact, only one renewal ever arrived. He clicked approve within four seconds, then muted the notification channel.
The real bill is attention.
One Tuesday after four, he sat twenty minutes staring at a green healthy light, unable to close the window. Ironically, the direct money was small, which is exactly the trap. Instead, the cost was over a hundred and twenty hours of his best attention. Also, a second idea two people requested never got built.
Decide when to kill a side project tonight.
First, write the date you could have known your project was not working.
Then ask if you would start it today, and write the answer down.
From the book.
Nothing kept it alive except that nothing stopped it, and that's the part I want you to take away from this. The infrastructure runs itself, costs almost nothing while it sits idle, renews its own certificates, and never once sends me a bill large enough to force a conversation. There's no moment built into the thing anywhere where a human being has to approve its continued existence.
I Want to Start a Business but I Can't Quit My Job, chapter 7: Why you have not decided already
Questions about when to kill a side project.
How do you know when to kill a side project?
First, look for the date the evidence turned flat. Then, if you would not start it today, that matters.
Why do cheap projects survive so long?
Because nothing forces a decision. No bill or meeting ever asks you to approve them again.
What did the unused product really cost?
Over a hundred and twenty hours of attention. Also, a second requested idea never got built.
Read the whole chapter.
This lesson covers one section of chapter 7, “Why you have not decided already”. The book goes further, with the full evidence, the stories and every exercise.
Lessons in this chapter.
- 01 Status quo bias examples: why your job never ends.
- 02 Omission bias: why not acting feels safer.
- 03 Career inaction: when staying is just a default.
- 04 Reversal test: would you take your job again.
- 05 When to kill a side project: the day you knew.
- 06 Parents chose my career: the first step was theirs.
- 07 Should I quit my job test: reading your answer.