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the 'why make another x' list

often times when working on a hobby project where you're attempting to (re-)create a custom version of something that already exists, you'll come across questions from other people that are always something along the lines of

"$THING already exists, why are you making another one?".

i have prepared a handy dandy list of rebuttals that can be used to counter their misplaced concerns. simply tick all that apply and send it over to them ( Or stick it somewhere on your project's documentation or website if it has those ).

the list will be updated as i come up with more rebuttals.

here's the list:

# i'm making $THING because:

  • [ ] it's fun
  • [ ] i felt like it
  • [ ] i bet i can sell this and get rich
  • [ ] it'll probably look real nice on my resumé
  • [ ] people will think i'm a cool person for having made my own $THING
  • [ ] i will think i'm a cool person for having made my own $THING
  • [ ] there arent enough versions of $THING out there already and there needs to be more!
  • [ ] it's trendy right now and i want to hop on the hype train myself
  • [ ] i'm bored out of my mind and if i don't distract myself with this i'm going to lose my mind
  • [ ] i happen to have the free will required to engage in this activity
  • [ ] it's a good educational experience
  • [ ] it fills some gap that i found in my knowledge/experience
  • [ ] the other version(s) of $THING sucks because it's:
    • [ ] boring
    • [ ] poorly made
    • [ ] UNWORTHY!!!
    • [ ] bloated
    • [ ] messy
    • [ ] hard to use
    • [ ] difficult to understand
    • [ ] poorly documented
    • [ ] expensive
    • [ ] hard to acquire
    • [ ] slow to use
    • [ ] tedious to use
    • [ ] doesn't work very well
    • [ ] proprietary and i can't modify it
    • [ ] open and i can modify it, and i take issue with that for some reason D:<
  • [ ] the other version(s) of $THING is fine but:
    • [ ] i wish it did x better
    • [ ] it's missing some features that could really enhance it / my usage of it
    • [ ] difficult to aquire
    • [ ] unnecessarily bloated
    • [ ] poorly documented
    • [ ] expensive
    • [ ] tedious to use
    • [ ] doesn't fit enough of my use-cases for it to really be good for me
    • [ ] fails to offer x functionality
    • [ ] it's proprietary and i can't modify it