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by Jake Prins

杰克·普林斯(Jake Prins)

为什么附带项目如此重要 (Why side projects are so damn important)

Trello, Craigslist, Unsplash, AppSumo, Twitter, Gmail… what do all these successful companies have in common?

Trello，Craigslist，Unsplash，AppSumo，Twitter，Gmail……所有这些成功的公司有什么共同点？

Yes, they can all trace their humble beginnings back to being something we might call a ‘side project’.

是的，他们都可以将自己卑微的起点追溯到我们可以称之为“副项目”的地方。

Side projects come in many forms and have lots of different purposes. Some people start them to create a nice product and eventually build a successful company, but there are many other reasons why working on side projects can be exceptionally important.

辅助项目有多种形式，并且有许多不同的用途。 有些人开始创建一个不错的产品并最终建立一个成功的公司，但是还有很多其他原因使进行辅助项目变得异常重要。

加快学习速度。 (Accelerate your learning.)

Learning and mastering a new skill can be tough, but with enough persistence and motivation there is a lot we can achieve. Like learning how to code, it can be hard, frustrating and time-consuming. In the end, the most important thing to do is to keep going and gain experience.

学习和掌握新技能可能很难，但是只要有足够的毅力和动力，我们就能取得很多成就。 就像学习如何编码一样，这可能很困难，令人沮丧且耗时。 最后，最重要的事情是继续前进并获得经验。

Sure, it helps if you’re good at math, logical thinking and have a college degree in computer science. But for people with a non-technical background, like me, it’s still possible to become great developers with enough motivation and persistence.

当然，如果您精通数学，逻辑思维并拥有计算机科学大学学位，那么它将对您有所帮助。 但是对于像我这样具有非技术背景的人来说，仍然有可能成为有足够动力和毅力的优秀开发人员。

In my own experience, I found working on side projects in my spare time not only fun, but really helpful in developing my coding skills.

以我自己的经验，我发现在业余时间从事辅助项目不仅很有趣，而且对发展我的编码技能也非常有帮助。

Every time I read something interesting on a blog, or was facing a challenge at work, or learned something new from a colleague, I wanted to implement it in one of my side projects as well.

每当我在博客上读到一些有趣的东西，或者在工作中面临挑战，或者从同事那里学到新东西时，我也想在我的一个副项目中实现它。

Read about a better way to store images? Let’s try it! Learned how to work with AJAX? Let’s Ajax-ify everything! Stumbled upon a great Ruby gem? Let’s bundle that up!

了解有关存储图像的更好方法吗？ 试试吧！ 了解了如何使用AJAX？ 让我们Ajax化一切！ 偶然发现了一颗伟大的Ruby宝石？ 让我们捆绑起来！

And every time I improved my skills, I wanted to rewrite stuff to use better or cleaner code, which made me care about it more and more.

每当我提高技能时，我都想重写一些东西以使用更好或更干净的代码，这使我越来越在意它。

拉特福克斯 (RaterFox)

In my first year working as a developer I learned a lot. I also believe the side projects I worked on at night or over weekends gave my learning ability and motivation a big boost.

在从事开发人员的第一年，我学到了很多东西。 我还相信，我在晚上或周末进行的辅助项目极大地促进了我的学习能力和动力。

One of the projects I spend by far the most time on is called RaterFox. It’s a social platform for movies and TV shows that amongst other things, allows you to rate and review titles or recommend them to your friends.

我到目前为止花费最多时间的项目之一称为RaterFox 。 这是一个用于电影和电视节目的社交平台，除其他外，它使您可以对标题进行评分和审阅，或将其推荐给朋友。

I’ve used the TMDb API to get the movie and TV data. I used the Giphy API to create a gif picker so users can create ‘Reactions’ to show their initial thoughts about a movie or TV series.

我用过TMDb 用于获取电影和电视数据的API。 我使用Giphy API创建了一个gif选择器，以便用户可以创建“React”来显示他们对电影或电视连续剧的初步想法。

I’m still working hard on improvements (because when will a project ever be finished?), but in case you’re interested you can check it out here. (BTW, any feedback is welcome and highly appreciated! Contact me: jake@raterfox.com).

我仍在努力进行改进(因为什么时候可以完成一个项目？)，但是如果您有兴趣，可以在这里查看 。 (顺便说一句，欢迎您提供任何反馈意见，并高度赞赏！与我联系：jake@raterfox.com)。

当侧面项目发光时 (When side projects shine)

Working on side projects can have different purposes. These can be improving some skill, experimenting with new technologies, testing out a product idea or building a startup.

进行辅助项目可能有不同的目的。 这些可以提高一些技能，尝试新技术，测试产品创意或建立一家初创公司。

But no matter what the goal may be, it’s the perfect way to create something new. Working on a side project is different to “regular” work, because there is less pressure, no deadlines, and no rules. You’re free to play around and switch to something else whenever you feel like it.

但是，不管目标是什么，这都是创造新事物的完美方法。 进行辅助项目与“常规”工作不同，因为压力较小，没有截止日期，也没有规则。 您随时可以随意游玩并切换到其他地方。

This freedom sometimes may lead to unproductive, glitchy and half working “products”, but it can also result in something creative, inspiring and innovative. And that is when the beauty of a side project will shine.

这种自由有时可能会导致生产效率低下，出现故障且无法正常工作的“产品”，但也可能带来创造性，启发性和创新性。 到那时，辅助项目的魅力就会大放异彩。

At the company I work for, we have an ‘Experiment Day’ every month. This is great for trying out some interesting technologies. Similar ideas are found across a lot of tech companies — and it’s easy to see why.

在我工作的公司 ，我们每个月都有一个“实验日”。 这对于尝试一些有趣的技术非常有用。 在许多科技公司中都发现了类似的想法，并且很容易理解为什么。

For example, Facebook’s “Like” button started as the “awesome button” and was created during a Facebook hack-a-thon. This simple functionality is now a core feature and is used in various guises in all types of digital products.

例如，Facebook的“赞”按钮最初是“很棒的按钮”，并且是在Facebook骇客活动期间创建的。 现在，此简单功能已成为一项核心功能，并且已在所有类型的数字产品中以各种形式使用。

During the hack-a-thon, the creators didn’t know that they were building a button that would have such an impact, but it did.

在骇人听闻的过程中，创建者并不知道他们正在构建一个会产生这种影响的按钮，但是确实如此。

The huge tech giants like Facebook and Google inspired smaller companies to spend more time on side projects because the results were seen everywhere.

像Facebook和Google这样的大型科技巨头鼓励较小的公司花更多的时间在附带项目上，因为结果无处不在。

Gmail, Google talk, AdSense and Google News are some of the successful projects that were born out of the Google’s famous “20% policy”. This allows employees to use up to 20 percent of their workweek at Google to pursue their own projects.

Gmail，Google Talk，AdSense和Google News是一些成功的项目，这些项目是由Google著名的“ 20％政策”产生的。 这样一来，员工最多可将其每周20％的工作时间用于Google进行自己的项目。

更多成功故事 (More success stories)

Besides the awesome products that many of us use everyday, like Gmail or Instagram, there are many more success stories of startups that are build out of side projects.

除了我们许多人每天都使用的很棒的产品(例如Gmail或Instagram)之外，还有更多来自于副项目的初创公司成功案例。

Take for instance Unsplash, the side project that did more than the creators could ever imagine: it saved their startup. Unsplash, which provides copyright-free and high-quality images, started off as a marketplace for hiring freelance designers and developers. It failed to gain traction until their side project (that was initially built in one afternoon) started to lift off.

以Unsplash为例，它的副项目做得比创建者想象的还要多：它节省了启动资金 。 提供免费版权和高质量图像的Unsplash最初是雇用自由设计师和开发人员的市场。 直到他们的副项目(最初在一个下午建成)开始进行之前，它并没有获得牵引力。

The Crew team, the company beside Unsplash, launched many other side projects that have become the main sources of referral traffic to the Crew website.

Unsplash旁边的公司Crew团队发起了许多其他附带项目，这些项目已成为Crew网站引荐流量的主要来源。

“More people cared about us in a few hours than in the entire last year.”

“与去年相比，在几个小时内，更多的人关心我们。”

If you are a developer, you likely have an account on Github, the Web-based Git version control repository hosting service (oh, and billion-dollar company).

如果您是开发人员，则可能会在基于Web的Git版本控制存储库托管服务Github上拥有一个帐户(哦，还有十亿美元的公司)。

Founders Chris Wanstrath and PJ Hyett were upset with how difficult it was to change open source code, so they built their own repository. They built their side project at nights and weekends, and now serve over 20 million users.

创始人Chris Wanstrath和PJ Hyett对更改开源代码的难度感到不安，因此他们建立了自己的存储库。 他们在晚上和周末建立​​了附属项目，现在为超过2000万用户提供服务。

“It all started with a domain, a cheap slice from Slicehost, and some stock art.”

“这一切都始于域名，Slicehost的廉价切片和一些库存艺术品。”

You never know what you may end up with when you start a side project.

您永远都不知道启动辅助项目时可能会得到什么。

Take for instance The Point, a social network that connected users who wanted to rally behind a specific cause.

以The Point为例，这是一个社交网络，连接了希望在特定原因背后集会的用户。

When founder Eric Lefkofsky saw users banding together to buy an item in bulk and receive a discount, he made some new plans for his project and ended up with Groupon… you know, that daily deals site that had a $1 billion valuation within two years of launching.

创始人埃里克·莱夫科夫斯基(Eric Lefkofsky)看到用户聚集在一起购买散装商品并获得折扣时，他为自己的项目制定了一些新计划，并最终选择了Groupon ……您知道，该日常交易网站在两年之内的估值就达到了10亿美元。发射。

Another daily deal side you may heard of is AppSumo. This startup shows that you don’t need a lot of money to start. Founder Noah Kagan had the idea of a discount site for online companies, but only started with $50 to build a landing page and to collect emails. By investing time and effort he ended up with a startup that had $1 million in sales in their first year.

您可能听说过的另一笔日常交易是AppSumo 。 该启动表明您不需要很多钱就可以启动。 创始人诺亚·卡根(Noah Kagan)曾想过为在线公司提供一个折扣网站，但最初只花了50美元就可以建立一个登陆页面并收集电子邮件。 通过投入时间和精力，他最终创立了一家创业公司，第一年的销售额就达到了100万美元。

Now, it’s awesome to read about these side project that lifted off to become great companies, but as I mentioned before, working on side projects could lead to many different benefits.

现在，很高兴读到这些成为一个伟大公司的副业项目，但是正如我之前提到的，从事副业项目可能会带来许多不同的好处。

There are plenty of examples of people who learned how to code just by working on side projects. So if you want to learn a new programming language, improve your current skills, or use your creativity to solve a problem you faced, it’s never too late to start something new. So, how to start?

有很多人只是通过在辅助项目上工作而学习了如何编码的示例。 因此，如果您想学习一种新的编程语言，提高当前技能或利用自己的创造力来解决自己面临的问题，那么开始新的事物永远不会太晚。 那么，如何开始呢？

如何开始 (How to start)

Once a while, we all have great idea’s running through our mind, but most of the time we don’t act up on them.

有时候，我们每个人都有一个伟大的想法在我们的脑海中流淌，但是大多数时候我们不付诸实践。

It’s not a mystery why. Ideas are not always realistic, but it’s not necessary to let you be overwhelmed by the size of some of our ideas and the thoughts of actually building it. Three things to keep in mind if you want to start on a new project:

这不是一个谜。 想法并不总是现实的，但是没有必要让您对我们某些想法的规模以及实际构建想法的想法感到不知所措。 如果要开始新项目，请牢记三件事：

1.从小做起 (1. Start small)

The easiest way to start is to pick a small project you will find interesting, or will solve a problem you have. Then break it down into smaller components until one of them looks easy to implement. Complete that part and repeat the process until you have all of the parts you need to solve the original problem.

最简单的开始方法是选择一个您会发现有趣的小项目，或者解决您遇到的问题。 然后将其分解为较小的组件，直到其中一个看起来易于实现。 完成该部分并重复该过程，直到获得解决原始问题所需的所有部分为止。

2.保持简单 (2. Keep it simple)

The best approach is to keep it simple. Your project should have minimal complexity, minimal coding, and be focused on the main purpose it serves. If it’s an app that let’s you find new recipes, it doesn’t need chat functionalities. You can always add new things later, but when you are just starting you should reduce features to the minimum.

最好的方法是保持简单。 您的项目应具有最小的复杂度，最少的编码，并专注于其服务的主要目的。 如果它是一个让您查找新食谱的应用程序，则它不需要聊天功能。 您以后总是可以添加新内容，但是在刚开始使用时，应将功能降至最低。

3.无压力 (3. No pressure)

Starting a new project can be exciting. Although it’s fun to read about the success stories about projects that where converted into successful companies, one of the reasons why working on side projects can be so interesting is that it shouldn’t give you pressure to make money with it.

开始一个新项目可能会令人兴奋。 尽管阅读有关成功转化为成功公司的项目的成功案例很有趣，但从事辅助项目之所以如此有趣的原因之一是，它不应该给您施加压力来赚钱。

That means it also doesn’t matter if it fails. No deadlines and complete creative freedom mean you can choose which way you think your project should go. While gaining experience in your work, and doing something you love, you can build something to care about which will make you keep coming back when there’s more work to do.

这意味着它是否失败也无关紧要。 没有截止日期和完全的创作自由，意味着您可以选择自己认为项目应该进行的方式。 在获得工作经验并做自己喜欢的事情的同时，您可以建立一些关心的事情，当有更多工作要做时，这会使您不断回来。

Don’t dismiss your side project as just this thing you do on the side. It can become the thing you do that makes you happy and excited. Your little side project maybe even evolves into your “main project” one day. Just start small, be patient and improve it while you learn. You may end up with some unexpected product that the world didn’t know it needed.

不要仅仅因为您在此方面所做的事情而忽略了您的辅助项目。 它可以成为使您快乐和兴奋的事情。 您的小项目可能甚至有一天会演变成您的“主要项目”。 刚开始时要有耐心，并在学习时加以改进。 您可能最终会得到一些世人都不知道的意外产品。

Thanks for reading! Hope the information was helpfull. Follow me on Medium for more articles or on Twitter and Instagram @jakeprins_nl.

谢谢阅读！ 希望这些信息对您有所帮助。 在媒体上关注我，或在Twitter和Instagram @jakeprins_nl上关注我。

翻译自: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/why-side-projects-are-so-damn-important-239ba37209e/

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