Give It Away Now
Yesterday I was listening to one of my favorite bands, and one of their songs came on that I hadn’t heard in a while:
(If you haven’t heard it, I recommend you give it a listen.)
But I decided to dig a little deeper and find out what inspired Anthony Kiedis to write the song. Kiedis’ former girlfriend inspired the concept through her altruistic nature. Here’s what she said to him:
“If you have a closet full of clothes and you try to keep them all, your life will get very small. But if you have a full closet and someone sees something they like, if you give it to them, the world is a better place.”
This stuck with Kiedis, and since reading it, it has stuck with me too.
Is the Closet Full?
I love what I do for work. I am paid well to create solutions to complex problems. I am fortunate to work with some of the smartest people I have ever met, and I am constantly learning new things.
Metaphorically, my closet is full. I earn enough to be comfortable and content.
But when it comes to side projects, I am motivated by the wrong thing. I approach every project with an entrepreneurial lens. I must maximize my own financial gain from the time spent working on it.
Now, the term ‘entrepreneur’ has become a red flag to me in last the few years. Every 17 year old kid is an “Entrepreneur” thanks to the advancements of generative AI.
Here’s the typical path I have taken to building in the past:
- Find an idea that people want.
- Build a minimal prototype as quick as possible.
- Prove that people will pay for it.
Once you have signal, double down. Raise money, or scale using paid advertising to “capture” the market and make as great of a return as possible.
But is financial gain the only meaningful metric of success?
What If I Don’t Care About Making More Money?
“It’s free, no seriously.”
What if I took a Robin Hood approach to writing software for side projects?
(The folk tale, not the app where you go to yeet your money on 0dte options…)
Let’s take a stab at reworking that quote that had such an effect on Kiedis:
“If you have a mind full of ideas but you only work on the ideas that will make you more money, your life will get very small. What if instead you made things that were useful to others, and gave them away, completely free. No strings attached. The world becomes a better place.”
Oh, so you mean Open Source Software (OSS), right? Well, yes, in theory, OSS does tick these boxes. The problem with OSS is that it’s often not approachable to everyone. Especially non-technical folks.
Advances in generative AI could bridge this gap. Making OSS more accessible to non-technical audiences is a topic I am interested in. But that’s an idea for another post 😉
My Plan
This post is a reflection, but it’s an important one.
Here’s what I want to do:
- Find pain points that users are trying to overcome using paid software.
- Build quality consumer software, most likely iOS apps.
- Give them away, completely free. That means no freemium model. No ads. No option to “Buy me a coffee.” FREE.
Why? Because I can.
Because for me, writing software is fun.
Because I want to give some value back to the world.
Because my closet is already full.