The Project Vault Keeps Growing

I have a vault of old projects. Some are on GitHub. Some have release keys. Some were actually published. Some have Trello boards full of future ideas. In plenty of cases, I have everything I would need to bring them back.

That sounds useful. In practice, it is also a trap.

Old projects are rarely actually dead

That is the problem. A truly dead project is easy: you delete it, forget it, move on. Mine usually are not dead. They are more like suspended animation.

Maybe I built the first version and it technically works. Then I made the second version, the one where it actually looks decent. Then I wrote down everything I wanted the third version to become. So when I come back to it months or years later, I do not see a failed project. I see something that is almost asking to be finished.

And that makes it very easy to think I could probably revive this. Which is usually true. That does not mean I should.

“It only needs a small update” is dangerous

This is where the backlog starts lying to me. An old Android app might genuinely only need a few small updates. Maybe the code is there. The Play Store listing exists. I still have the keystore. I even know what I wanted to add next. So technically, bringing it back is easy.

But if I already have ten active projects or ideas, reviving five old ones does not give me five easy wins. It gives me fifteen things to think about.

That is the real cost. Every project you revive adds another little thread to your brain: this needs an update, that needs testing, this listing should be improved, this feature would be fun, I should probably fix that bug, maybe I should redesign the icon too. The work might be small. The mental inventory is not.

I keep telling myself to backlog everything

I have said this to myself plenty of times: stop starting things, put the ideas in the backlog, finish what is already there. Perfectly sensible.

Unfortunately, I also like the backlog. A backlog is comforting because nothing is really lost. You do not have to say no to an idea. You can just say later.

And later is a wonderful place. Everything fits there.

It is basically the same problem as buying games

This probably is not even a development problem. Look at a Steam library. You buy one game because it is 75% off and think you'll get around to that. Then another one goes on sale. Then there is a bundle. Then something gets added through PlayStation Plus or Game Pass. Eventually you have 300 games and the vague belief that one day you are going to work through the backlog.

You are not. I am not either. The maths stopped working years ago.

Projects feel exactly the same. The difference is that with a game, I only lose the money I spent buying it. With a project, I can lose evenings convincing myself that I am still going to finish everything.

There has to be a point where “later” becomes “never”

I think this is the part I am still learning. Keeping old projects is fine. Keeping the code is fine. Keeping the ideas is fine. But mentally treating every old project as something I still owe myself is probably not.

Some projects need to be allowed to become artifacts. They were useful because I built them. Maybe I learned a framework from one. Maybe another was my first attempt at publishing an app. Maybe another proved an idea was not interesting enough to keep pursuing. That is still value. It does not need another release.

The vault can stay

I am probably never going to delete everything. I like having the old code there. Sometimes it is fun to open something I made years ago and remember what I was trying to do. And occasionally an old idea probably will deserve another chance.

But I am trying to separate “I still have this” from “I still need to finish this.” Those are not the same thing.

The vault can keep growing. I just probably need to stop pretending I am ever going to clear it.