Give yourself permission to play: how to learn with side projects
In this GitHub Podcast clip, Martin Woodward explains why developers should treat playful experiments as genuine learning, rather than dismissing them as distractions.
Make room for experimentation
Knowing how much boilerplate a side project will require can be enough to stop a developer from starting. Woodward discusses how GitHub Copilot helps him return to hobby projects, including running local models on a Raspberry Pi and tracking license plates in his driveway.
His advice is to keep the experiment manageable:
- Set a timebox so the project has a bounded scope.
- Focus on getting something working rather than making every part perfect.
- Ship before perfectionism takes over, treating the experiment itself as a worthwhile way to learn.