I launched 17 side projects. Result? I'm rich in expired domains

Hacker News Discussion ↗

Shared experience: domain graveyards

  • Many commenters have piles of expired or idle domains; renewal emails are a recurring reminder of unfinished ideas.
  • Some treat the domains list like a museum of past enthusiasms or “trophies of skills learned,” others feel guilt or frustration.
  • Several joke about forming a “forever WIP” club or “project graveyard” site to memorialize abandoned projects.

Strategies to curb domain bloat

  • Common rule: don’t buy a domain until there’s a working prototype or MVP; the domain becomes a “reward” for shipping.
  • Others buy only rare “great” names and disable auto‑renew, or use one umbrella domain with many subdomains.
  • Alternatives: host on subdomains/homelabs, Cloudflare/Tailscale tunnels, or free tiers (Fly.io, serverless) until traction appears.
  • Some now put all early projects on GitHub or internal hosts and only later move to a real domain.

Motivation: fun vs business

  • Split views:
    • For many, side projects are “me‑ware” or pure learning/play; success is optional.
    • Others explicitly chase income or escape from a day job and feel stuck when nothing “takes off.”
  • One view: as long as each project teaches something new, you’re progressing.
  • Counterview: after ~3 serious failures you’ve learned most of what matters; beyond that you may just be spinning wheels and avoiding better opportunities.

Mental health and meaning

  • One commenter moves from domain graveyards to despair about mediocrity and even suicidal thoughts; replies push back hard:
    • External success isn’t the only source of value; relationships, curiosity, and small contributions matter.
    • Multiple people recommend professional help and specific therapy modalities.
    • There’s explicit concern about ruminating on “lasting impact” leading to thoughts of violence.

Execution bottlenecks: finishing and selling

  • Many can start and even ship products, but stall at marketing, naming, or distribution.
  • There’s regret over abandoning paying users when infrastructure rotted, plus lessons about simpler, low‑dependency stacks (static HTML/CSS, minimal backends).
  • Advice themes: validate demand first (landing pages, talking to users), write out mind‑maps before coding, scope brutally small, and accept that most businesses are “pushed uphill” rather than pulled by obvious demand.

ADHD, dopamine loops, and overdiagnosis debate

  • Several see the pattern “buy domain → hyperfocus build → drop it” as classic ADHD; others argue it’s just normal early‑excitement/late‑grind behavior.
  • Long subthread on diagnosis, tests, meds, and how labeling can both help (self‑understanding) and risk becoming an excuse; strong disagreement but no clear resolution.

Costs, infrastructure, and coping

  • People differ on paying recurring costs: some happily maintain decades‑old personal tools with no users; others find any $5–25/month bill a blocker unless revenue is likely.
  • Common low‑cost setups: single cheap VPS with DB, old Mac mini/Dokku, $5 EC2, or generous free tiers; domain purchases are usually the only unavoidable cash outlay.
  • A few use AI coding tools (e.g., Claude Code) as “hired devs,” with mixed experiences: some launch faster, others drown in buggy, bloated output and lose motivation.