Starting a New Dev Project When the Previous One Flops: A Try-Not-to-Beat-Yourself-Up Guide

Starting a New Dev Project When the Previous One Flops: A Try-Not-to-Beat-Yourself-Up Guide

Choosing to start a new project when the previous one runs into complex challenges can be daunting. You had invested your time and effort, but as it looks, spending more time resolving issues is not helping.

That's what happened while I was working on this E-commerce project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRCDsB9i3bI.

I write this short article to encourage and give a different perspective to someone struggling on their learning journey and is somewhat feeling like a let down to themselves.

I've really enjoyed working on the E-commerce project because I got to learn Javascript, React & NodeJs in a practical environment. For someone who started at a Bootcamp to watching tutorials, I'd say building a project from scratch is the superior way of learning (That's my preference though :)

Anyway, when I got to the NodeJS section, I ran into 3 recurring issues that wouldn't go away even after re-installing node-modules, Babel, Yarn, and Webpack:

  1. The React development environment was not launching even after re-installing node modules

  2. Constantly ran into "Module Not Found" error whenever I used 'npm start react app' to launch the React app

  3. Getting an unexpected token error after moving the node-modules directory into where the entry point file is located

Anyone who's worked with React, NodeJS, Angular, and even python has run into such challenges, and they can be pretty frustrating!

So how do you move on from a project you'd invested so much time and effort into? Here's my suggestion:

  1. Put the problematic project on hold and debug at a slower pace,

  2. While working on a different assignment to keep yourself on track with your goals.

I'm now working on my portfolio website to host my work and demonstrate my skills. I chose to take this route because I have a target number of projects and learning milestones I need to hit by end of this year.

So it makes sense to start a new project while still solving issues with the previous one.

It's tempting to keep looking for solutions, but I realized that the more I kept looking, the more frustrated I got when it was not working out, yet time is still moving and affecting the deadlines set for upcoming work.

So to prevent burnout and long-term frustration, my simple solution is to start a new project while working to resolve the problems I encountered in the E-commerce project. And no, it's not a cop-out.

Developers are driven by a deep-seated need to solve problems. In as much as it can get frustrating, dealing with bugs and resolving issues gives you a high that makes you feel invincible and strong enough to keep going (At least for me).

So putting aside a frustrating project can make you feel like a failure and question why you got into tech in the first place.

Choosing to set aside that challenging project is not a cop-out; it's self-preservation and an opportunity to solve the problem at a slower pace while giving yourself the freedom to try out something else.

You get to learn new skills on the new project while ALSO delving deeper into the previous project's issues. So it ends up being a win-win on two fronts:

  1. Get to keep your creative juices flowing and learn new stuff with the new project

  2. Debug and learn new problem-solving skills with the previous project.

Hope this perspective helps a struggling developer out there!

What other tips can you offer to manage such frustrating situations successfully?