My side project failure taught me a tough lesson about scope creep

Last fall I started building a little freelance writing portfolio site on the side. I kept adding features - a blog, a newsletter signup, a contact form with fancy validation. After 3 months and maybe 60 hours, it still wasn't live. I finally just launched a one-page site with my best 5 samples and an email link. Has anyone else hit this trap where you overcomplicate a simple project and never ship it?

2 comments

2 Comments

johnthompson1d agoMost Upvoted

Used to think adding features was just being thorough, but now I see it's just a way to avoid hitting publish. Your story makes a good point that a finished simple thing beats a complicated half-finished thing every time. At some point you just gotta draw a line in the sand and let it go live.

ryan_nelson1d ago

Ngl, "just being thorough" is a fair excuse but this is a side project, not your wedding. It's really not that deep.