Some of the formatting on this post is totally broken on the dashboard. Click through to view it as I intended.

I’ve got a ton of ideas for new things to build and, having more or less just finished a large project, I’ve suddenly got a lot of energy and some time to work on these ideas. Some of them are ideas that have been building up for years and some are just simple notions that I had while writing the book that I couldn’t implement at the time. And of course, I’m interested in updating, fixing and building new things for some of my other projects.

But one thing has become clear to me: from now on, all of my personal projects will be open source.

The thing is, I can no longer remember why it’s beneficial that I keep the source code of my software hidden away. It’s not that I have super fancy algorithms lying around anywhere. The truth is, I’m not that good of a programmer, the stuff I do can be done by anyone with a book called “[Insert Programming Language Here] in 24 Hours.”

The secret to any of the small successes of any of my projects is not because I’ve kept the secrets close to me, it’s not necessarily even because I do it better than anyone else. Although, sometimes I like to think I do some things better and first, but that’s another story.

• If enjoysthin.gs is successful, it’s not because other developers had trouble duplicating it, it’s because it’s a fun site to use. People have watched it grow from a weekend project into a vibrant community, the users are never pretentious, and visiting the site can be anything from inspiring to hilarious. It’s not about the code base.
• Blasted scratches a very specific itch. If you have that itch, and aren’t aware of the application’s superior, albeit uglier, competitors, buying this $5 application is a no brainer.

But saying, “I’m not that good” is essentially giving the reason of “well, why not open source the stuff?” There’s more to it than that. It comes down to why I do this stuff in the first place, what types of things I like to do and what types of things I don’t like to do.

I build things because I like to build them, I want to use them, and on some level, probably a bigger level than I’m willing to admit, I want other people to use them.

I started writing software (not all that long ago) because the act of doing it is fun. You code something, see if it works, it does (in a way), you celebrate, and try to fix it. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

In real life, there’s probably more beer and less washing machine.

Making this decision is as much of a commitment to do something as it is commitment to not do something. Yes, I’m going to move to open source, but I’m quitting rest of it. I’m leaving the whole business of startups and MBAs and branding and “selling to Google” and Facebook integration as a business decision and “entrepreneurs.”

The truth is that I Hate the scene. I’m tired of people who call themselves geeks but spend their time talking about Twitter’s business model instead of how they can suddenly handle all their mind-numbing traffic. I hate that after presenting at the New York Tech Meetup, a VC in the audience came up to me (unsolicited) and told me that I should “try to appear to be a bigger company.” I’m tired of the valley vs. the alley talk.

But love other parts of this industry. I love the sitting alone in the middle of the night, staring at a cursor in Emacs and knowing that I’m almost there. I love writing an application to learn a programming language. I love outdated technologies and stuff that’s way too far ahead of it’s time. I love that we can hack our phones (again). I love that users write to express how much they love something, and ask how best to buy a second license. I love that indie developers are featured prominently in major television ad campaigns. I love the feeling that, as an industry, we’re on to something.

But for me, I’m going to stop thinking in terms of products and start releasing projects. I don’t want to be limited by thinking, “is there a market for this idea.” From here on out, success for a project means at least one person is “watching” it on github.

Massive success on github!

It’s not that I’m leaving the business side of things, I’m just proclaiming that my focus is on interesting projects. The secret to my success will not be contained in some secret deep within the source code. I like to think I’m more clever than that.

“So you’re writing open source software now, is that right, hippie? Are you going to release enjoysthin.gs and Blasted.app as open source.”

First off, don’t call me a hippie, chief. Secondly, I’m not sure if I’ll release the code to those projects. I actually want to know if anyone has thoughts on the matter: is there any interest in me releasing the source code to either Blasted or Enjoythin.gs?

Is anybody interested in that? Preparing enjoysthin.gs for an open source release could potentially be a lot of work. If there is significant interest, I’d be willing to open source both of the projects.

PS: None of this is set in stone. I may take it all back.