I'll say it. A lot of people building side projects are not building businesses. They are avoiding the harder, more ambiguous things in their actual lives -- the job search they should be doing, the career pivot they're afraid to commit to, the uncomfortable conversation they're putting off.
And building a side project is excellent cover for this, because it sounds productive. 'I'm working on a thing' reads as entrepreneurial and driven. But if you've been 'working on your thing' for 14 months and you have fewer than 10 users and haven't charged anyone money, you're not building a business. You're cosplaying as a founder while avoiding something else.
I've done this. I had a project I kept 'improving' for two years that I never launched. In retrospect it was a way to feel like I was doing something ambitious without having to actually put anything into the world and risk rejection.
The tell: when someone asks 'when are you launching?' and you pivot to talking about features you still need to add, you might be in this pattern. Real milestones get you closer to users. Perpetual refinement keeps users hypothetical.
OBVIOUS COUNTERPOINT: some things actually need time to build. Some products need 6 months of infra before you can show them to anyone. Some builders legitimately want a hobby project and the business model is not the point.
But if you are using 'side project' as the answer to 'what are you doing about your career situation' while also not interviewing, not networking, not applying, not pivoting -- that's worth examining.
The side project that functions as a job application is real and I've seen it work. But that only works if you actually finish it and show it to people who can hire you. Open GitHub repos with 3 commits from 8 months ago are not doing that job.
This was directed at myself in 2023 and I'm posting it in case it helps someone.