Comment by westoncb

> If I'm building a project for fun at home, then it's typically specifically to learn about a new thing (which I kind of assumed was the case for most people)

While I do sometimes get excited about learning a new technology, the most fun projects for me are where I already know all the tech required, and all the new ideas relate to whatever I'm building.

And I had assumed that would be the case for most people.

I see the differences between the two as:

1) Learning a new technology is kinda like reading a sci-fi short story to me: it's mostly about getting some interesting new idea, with the added benefit that it may apply favorably to my future work.

2) Building something new with known technology comes with the kind of unstilted, gratifying fun experienced when exercising well-developed skills in service of producing something. Often this comes with flow states; internalizing new concepts and practicing new techniques on the other hand are not ideal for this.

They both have their merits but to my mind, the second one is on another level, and I'd recommend to anyone using their fun projects only to learn knew things to try exercising their already established skills to build something they'd just like to see running, or to share with friends etc.

Edit: just to give an example: I had a lot of fun building this game where I learned no new technologies, and in fact had already built basically the same game 12 years prior (with different tech and far less knowledge). Instead I explored ideas related to the architecture that I thought might generalize, and enjoyed myself developing the algorithms and aesthetics that made the thing work: https://github.com/westoncb/under-game