Keeping personal coding projects fun in the age of AI¶

Frontier AI models have made it easier than ever to go from a foggy vision to working code in just an afternoon. In 2025, developers created more than 230 new repositories every minute on GitHub. Probably quite a lot of them personal hobby projects. And probably quite a lot of them small apps such as a to-do tracker or personal note-taking app. I mean, at this point coding a to-do app has become the new "Hello World". So coding is solved, right? But is this still fun? Wasn't it also part of the hobby to get stuck sometimes… and then manage to get yourself unstuck? To slowly, step by step, build something painstakingly and then look back and think: "I made that?" To actually learn while coding?

I started this blog to challenge myself, learn new things and become a better software developer. Most importantly I want to figure out how to have fun building my own stuff again. The projects are not AI-free though; that would be backwards. I'm exploring AI as a coach, a superpowered learning partner so to speak, to enhance the experience, not take away from it. At later stages AI automation could also become a goal, but only for specific tasks where reducing chores and repetition makes sense.

Choosing a fun project¶

I think the most important step in having fun while coding is choosing a project that you actually care about. It doesn't need to make sense to someone else, or solve some big problem, or have the potential to make money. Just something that is fun and challenging.

For me it was the idea of making a grimdark sci-fi MMO, as this would allow me to learn about servers, data-intensive applications and networking, but with space orcs and lasers.

Expect updates on the game's development (next I will flesh out the game's roadmap) and small blog posts every now and then.

Welcome to my blog!