coder’s block

one of the most frustrating feelings for me is having the desire to do something, but no outlet with which to pursue it.

over the past few months i’ve been dabbling with ruby on rails in my free time. i think it is a pretty neat development environment and i’d really like to do some serious coding with it. but so far all i’ve done is rewrite my diet plugin as a rails app. rewriting software in a different language is a good exercise, but thats the problem; it’s simply an exercise. i got about halfway through the process and just quit because it occured to me that i would never use what i was writing, since i’m already using my php version and it does everything i need. it also felt like homework; i knew i wouldn’t be drawing value out of what i was creating.

do i simply lack the need for new software? the whole reason i got into programming in the first place was because there was a void in my life for things that didnt exist as i’d like them to. thats why i wrote my news script (err…i mean, “blogging platform”) and image gallery. they were extremely useful apps that i used practically everyday for years. as you can see now, i use wordpress and flickr. but why? they fill the exact same void as my apps did. it’s because they are better. so now…what could i possibly write that hasn’t already been done better? any ideas i get for things to create are either gimmicky or contrived. sure, writing anything in rails would make me a better programmer, but i just can’t stay interested in something that i know will just be thrown away.

i have the need to write software, but there isn’t any software that i need. i’m not looking to go out there and invent the next big web 2.0 site, i just want a fun project to work on in my free time that, when finished, will actually serve a purpose in my life. (and maybe other people’s) but i am completely uninspired when it comes to ideas. help!

makes me miss high school… :[