The Shed vs the Skyscraper
You try something in the shed on a weekend because you’re curious. You learn the tradeoffs, the rough edges, the things the documentation doesn’t tell you. Then months later, when the team at work is evaluating that same tool or approach, you’re not starting from zero.
Because you’ve already broken things in your own environment, already evaluated tools on your own, and already felt the pain points, you can show up at work and make informed calls instead of guesses.
[…]
Protect your personal projects at all costs. It is where your curiosity lives, where you experiment, and where you define yourself as a builder rather than just an employee. The enterprise will teach you how to write code that survives, but the shed is what ensures you actually still want to write it.