Bonus Dungeons or Mandatory Grind? The Side Project Paradox

Tech Twitter says your GitHub is your resume and side projects are career mandatory. But the data tells a very different story. We break down the survivorship bias behind the 'build in public' hustle, explore why hobby coding is actually declining among developers, and ask the uncomfortable question: are side projects career accelerators or just a way to exploit ambitious engineers? 00:00 - Intro: The side project guilt trip 01:45 - The Twitter narrative: GitHub profiles, recruiters, and those viral statistics 04:15 - The reality check: Stack Overflow data on hobby coding decline 06:30 - The GitHub ghost town: Why most profiles don't exist 07:45 - JRPG metaphor: Bonus dungeons vs mandatory story quests 11:20 - Who actually benefits from side projects (and who doesn't) 14:00 - The survivorship bias machine This podcast episode was fully generated by AI — research, script, voices, and production. Built with Claude, Piper TTS, and automated pipeline tooling.