Try it: FullstackProjects.xyz

I build a lot of projects and participate in a bunch of communities with others who like to build, too. Over time I've built many different systems to help make these Creation Cycles go smoothly - from avoiding build traps, to prioritizing project ideas, to running meetings effectively.

Yet the most common problem I see from people who say they want to start building projects is that they never actually start. So none of these systems really help them.

My hypothesis about this is that it's mainly a self-imposed block, similar to writer's block. People are waiting for the perfect project idea, time, and mood to get started so they never get started cause there is no perfect scenario to do anything.

Hypothesis

Why I start every project with a hypothesis

• Context - Lots of people want to build projects
• Problem - A significant portion of them are blocking themselves on the "perfect" idea (which doesn't exist)
• Solution - Provide easy access to ideas / inspo to give them permission to start

Solution

My current solution is FullstackProjects.xyz. It's an MVE (Minimum Viable Experiment) to see if project idea / inspo in this form is useful to people.

Its current form is simply a shoddy list of ideas created by combining large lists of companies and nouns. This is how we used to build generative outputs back in my day (before AI) and I think having good ideas is largely about having a large number of them and picking out the few decent ones so that's what we're doing here.

Even with AI, I think the biggest benefit is working through ideas (serving as a rubber duck / inspo generator) so I think the idea has merit even if the implementation is lacking.

It certainly doesn't pass the MDE (Minimum Delightful Experience) test but largely I think that's not necessary until the general idea / problem has been tested so here we are.

How it's built

I like to build the simplest thing possible to start in such a way that it can grow if needed (a seed if you will) so we're using CloudSeed (my F# project boilerplate) to get a simple webpage up and running. This is my implementation of the HAM Stack which is my philosophy around building Simple Scalable Systems on the web today.

Frontend: Server-side rendered HTML + HTMX with Tailwind and DaisyUI for styling

I'm playing around with building reusable frontend components for my projects like UI sections and styles to help me build better projects faster. In particular I'm experimenting with black-based styles cause that's my favorite color and also I enjoy dark mode so trying to make more things I personally enjoy.

• Simple Interactive Islands with F# and HTMX
• Building ASP.NET apps with Tailwind CSS
• How to style HTMX apps with CSS

Backend: F# / Giraffe rendering HTML with Giraffe.ViewEngine

• Build a simple F# web API with Giraffe
• Server-side HTML Rendering with F# and Giraffe.ViewEngine

Database: Not needed right now but will use Postgres when I do

Hosting: Serverless Containers on Railway

I am trying out Railway as a potential alternative to Digital Ocean and Google Cloud for serverless containers. So far it's been pretty smooth but too early to give a definitive report.

• How I host side projects for $5 per month on Digital Ocean without managing servers
• How I host my Server-Side-Rendered F# site on Google Cloud for less than $1 per month

Next

So this my MVE for a fullstack project idea generator. I have a few ideas for features I want to play with and depending on interest may invest further or trash it.

Any comments / suggestions / criticisms are greatly appreciated!

If you like this post you might also like:

• Why you should choose HTMX for your next web-based side project - and ditch the crufty MPA and complex SPA
• The HAM Stack - A Simple Scalable Tech Stack for building modern web apps fast and cheap
• How I got interested in F#