HACKER Q&A
📣 amateur_dev

Can I work on solo projects as a freelance dev?


Hello everyone, I am a writer and I am looking for an occupation to support my creative endeavours. I know some coding basics and I enjoy it so I thought I could test if this gig works for me (coding projects for people). My requirement is that I would like to work totally solo on the projects, and start from scratch. Is that easily possible? if yes: What can of projects would these be? Can I do these projects with self taught knowledge? Where can I find such projects?

Thank you very much, and any other tips or advice is welcome :)


  👤 latexr Accepted Answer ✓
Yes, there are plenty of independent developers.

Pinboard¹ is by a single person, as is Marginalia² or Overcast³. For the last one check the Under the Radar podcast⁴ where two solo developers discuss matters related to indie development. Or search HN⁵.

¹ https://pinboard.in/

² https://search.marginalia.nu/

³ https://overcast.fm/

https://www.relay.fm/radar

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...


👤 gregjor
You can, if you know what you’re doing and can deliver. You’ll have to compete with freelancers who have more experience and a track record. I have freelanced for over ten years. My customers expect me to show results right away. The projects get dictated by the customer. You can either add business value or you can’t. You don’t get to decide whether you work solo or start from scratch because someone is paying you for results.