HACKER Q&A
📣 Userrr

What's the Smallest Project You've Made That Changed Your Life?


I’m fascinated by how tiny side projects—scripts, websites, blogs, apps—can have an outsized impact on someone’s career, reputation, or mindset.

Sometimes it’s just a 50-line tool that saved you 1,000 hours. Or a weekend experiment that got you your next job. Or a domain you forgot about that later blew up.

What’s the smallest or simplest thing you built that ended up changing your life in a big way?

Even better if you can share:

What the project was

How long it took

Why it mattered later

Looking for inspiration. Would love to read all your stories.


  👤 JohnFen Accepted Answer ✓
Way back in the '80s, I was commissioned to write a small DOS utility to convert between a couple of audio encodings. It took me about 2 hours and I charged $500 for it.

It was the most significant project of my career because it gave me the clue that there are ways to make a living that don't require me to be an employee.