Duct Tape And Turing Machines

I recently finished reading Dreaming In Code. Inside was a quote that I thought might be the wisest words I’ve heard about personal projects:

“Nobody should start to undertake a large project. You should start with a small trivial project, and you should never expect it to get large. If you do, you’ll just overdesign and generally think it is more important than it likely is at that stage. Or, worse, you might be scared away by the sheer size of the work you envision. So start small and think about the details. Don’t think about some big picture and fancy design. If it doesn’t solve some fairly immediate need, it’s almost certainly overdesigned.”

– Linus Torvalds