Why every creator needs a weird side project

Your portfolio shows what you can do. Your side project shows who you are.

The best creators I know all have at least one project that makes no commercial sense. A blog about obscure typefaces. A bot that generates haiku from weather data. A hand-drawn map of every coffee shop in their neighborhood.

Think about the people whose work you admire most. They have at least one project that exists purely for the joy of making it.

These projects are where you take risks you would never take in professional work. They are where you develop your voice and discover what you actually care about.

The paradox is that these seemingly useless projects often become the most valuable things in your portfolio — not because of what they produce, but because of what they reveal about you.