Side Project That Never Ends: Why Nobody Is Waiting.
A side project that never ends has no buyer, no client and nobody waiting for it. So there is no event that could finish it. The author's April 2026 script is still being worked on five months later, with no morning on which it becomes done.
A script nobody asked for.
In April 2026 the author wrote a script to pull and clean business lead data. Then it pushed that data through an automation service. Nobody asked for it, and no client is waiting. Also, no buyer will ever look at the code, and it has never left the laptop.
How a side project that never ends grows.
Five months later, the author is still working on that same script. The pattern-matching was rewritten, the error logs refactored, and responses tested locally again and again. As a result, dozens of hours went into automating what could be filtered by hand in minutes. This is what over engineering personal projects looks like from the outside.
The blank nobody can fill.
Line 14 of the main file still holds an April note about handling rate limits properly. However, the real problem appeared while writing this chapter. The author tried to name what must be delivered, and by whom, for the script to be done. But there was nothing to put in either blank.
Because no event exists, a side project that never ends turns into endless tinkering with code. Meanwhile, the product started one month later is finished and has customers. In short, a side project that never ends can be well engineered and still unseen.
Check for a side project that never ends.
List each project you are working on and write who is waiting for it.
For any project with no name beside it, write that it has no ending.
From the book.
And here is what happened when I sat down to write this chapter. I couldn't finish the sentence. I tried to write what would have to be delivered, and by which person, for that script to be done, and there is nothing to put in either blank. There is no event. There's no morning on which it's finished, and there was never going to be one.
I Want to Start a Business but I Never Actually Start, chapter 5: Preparation and its stop condition
Questions about side project that never ends.
Why does a side project that never ends never reach done?
Because nothing has to be delivered and nobody is waiting, there is no event that could finish it.
Can a well-built project still be unfinished?
Yes. The author's script is the best-engineered thing he owns, yet nobody will ever see it.
What was different about the project that did finish?
It had buyers and a stop rule tied to a real order. It started within a month of the script and now has customers.
Read the whole chapter.
This lesson covers one section of chapter 5, “Preparation and its stop condition”. The book goes further, with the full evidence, the stories and every exercise.
Lessons in this chapter.
- 01 Preparation Without a Finish Line: Spot It Tonight.
- 02 Does Business Planning Help: What 46 Studies Say.
- 03 Business Plan Survival Study: Why It Cannot Grade You.
- 04 Set a Stop Rule in Advance: Thirty-One Days to a Sale.
- 05 Side Project That Never Ends: Why Nobody Is Waiting.
- 06 Write a Stop Condition: What Arrives, From Whom.
- 07 Waiting for Permission to Start: Name Who You Need.