18 Sept 2025

How side projects spark new ideas

Over the years I’ve learned that side projects are more than just hobbies.
They’re the playground where I can experiment, explore, and develop my skills in ways that my day-to-day work doesn’t always allow.

Why side projects matter

In tech, things move quickly. Frameworks evolve, new APIs emerge, and AI tools open up possibilities we couldn’t imagine a few years ago.
By building small projects — often just a weekend experiment or a rough proof of concept — I get to explore ideas without pressure.

Sometimes these experiments turn into something useful, or they just stay as private code snippets on my machine. Either way, the process keeps me curious and creative.

AI as a playground

Right now, for example, I am working on building a custom LLM tailored to the knowledge I care about, with the idea of integrating it into this website later on.
In addition, every piece of content here will be tagged and categorized so it becomes searchable, organized, and easy to discover — all powered by AI.

Side projects are the perfect place to test these ideas. Whether it’s combining SvelteKit with OpenAI, playing with Mapbox for interactive maps, or setting up automation flows with n8n — every experiment teaches me something new.

Staying curious

For me, side projects are not about building the next big thing.
They’re about keeping a sense of play alive in my work, staying close to new technology, and exploring what’s possible.

In the end, it’s this curiosity that keeps me learning and inspired — and it often finds its way back into the bigger projects I work on.