In My little games workshop Dave Rupert writes:

I default to web tech because it’s what I know best and staying in your wheelhouse means you can move faster with less mystery roadblocks … But I’d like NOT WORK to not feel like work and see value in that, so this may change going forward.

Man, I feel this.

There’s much to be said about making “not work” not feel like work. Side-projects can feel like a kind of hyper-employment if you’re not careful. I’ve learned this the hard way too many times. Trying to turn a side-project into a business is but one example (a lesson I once learned on an open source hardware project). But another characteristic of side-projects I’ve found that triggers this feeling for me is the use of programming languages, frameworks or technologies that are identical to, or very close to, the technologies that I use during my day job.

I’m currently fortunate (?) that I don’t write much any code these days at work, which has left me with an abundance of mental energy for writing code after hours. But, even now, I still try to use side-projects as an excuse to dip my toes in completely foreign soils—learning new programming languages (currently Go) and frameworks or building things on parts of the stack I’d likely never touch otherwise.

Certainly, this makes projects much slower going. But the thrill of learning something totally new is something that keeps me excited and makes the “not work” continue to feel like not work. Of course, your milage may vary.