# tilde30 

Hello everyone! On September 1, 2024, we will be doing our second iteration of
"tilde30", a group project-doing project! For the 30 days starting on September 1,
we'll be working on our own projects together, encouraging and supporting each
other as we go. This is extremely shamelessly stolen from "DK30" which is linked
at the bottom of this post.

Since this is a tilde we're going really low-tech with the actual mechanics, and
using the traditional ".plan" and ".project" files. Specifically, we'll use
.plan for "what are you planning to do?" and .project for "how is it going?".
Just stick a tilde30 section in each file and I'll automatically pull your text
out and collect it together to send out updates on how everyone is doing :D

## How?

1. By Sep 1: pick a project you want to work on! (see below)
2. By Sep 1: post a short writeup of what you're planning to do, what
   milestones you'd like to hit, and what you're hoping to have at the end. Put
   them in your ~/.plan file, and stick a "tilde30" somewhere in there so we
   know it's you!
3. On Sep 8: post your first update in your ~/.project file! remember to put a
   "tilde30" somewhere too :)
4. On Sep 15: post your second update in your ~/.project file
5. On Sep 22: post your third update in your ~/.project file
6. On Sep 29: post your last update in your ~/.project file
7. On Sep 30: show off / demo / etc day! :D

## How Do I Pick A Project?

You should choose something that you want to do! It could be a creative project,
or it could be some kind of house/garden maintenance you've wanted to do for a
long time, or a new exercise routine - really anything where having some other
people around to cheerlead for you would be helpful. The only important things
are:

* It should be something you want to do, not something you "feel like you
  should" do
* It should be something where you can make incremental progress

That way you can pick good milestones to give yourself some intermediate
success!

Example projects:
* Program a small game
* Write a few poems
* Take a walk outside every day
* Clean out and donate a bunch of your old stuff
* Whatever you imagine!

If you were going to do the first one ("program a small game") your milestones
might be like...

1. sketch out the basic game mechanics and control scheme
2. put a character on the screen & move it around with the controls
3. you can play through the first level
4. you can play through the first three levels

The last milestone doesn't necessarily have to mean your project is complete,
either! It could just mean that you've made solid progress towards what you
wanted, and hopefully you have a bit of momentum. For example, if your project
was "write a novel", then your milestones could be:

1. sketch out the overall plot, setting, and dramatis personae
2. write chapter 1
3. write chapter 2, edit chapter 1
3. write chapter 3, edit chapter 2

and you'd have the first three chapters of a novel going :D

Whatever your project is, the most important ingredient for success is this.
It's so important I'm going to put it in a big box:

  **************************************************************
  * You must carve out consistent time to work on your project *
  **************************************************************

That doesn't mean you have to do a super rigid "I will work on my project from
0700 to 0800 every day come hell or high water" thing, but you must set aside
time to do your thing. Think in advance about what that time is going to be. Are
you gonna spend saturday afternoons on it? Or an hour every other day? Or
something else? It doesn't matter what schedule you pick, but you have to set
aside consistent time or you won't make consistent progress.

## Updates

Your updates can be as short or as long as you want! Just stick them in your
.project as you go with a "tilde30" somewhere near them and I'll find them. You
also don't have to work on your project every single day during the time - the
updates are deliberately one per week rather than one per day.

## What If I Fail?

That's okay! The goal is to try; it's fine if you aim too high and don't end up
hitting all your milestones. What we're going for here is to build some
progress on a project, not necessarily to achieve 100%. That said, please do
try; doing worthwhile projects usually involves overcoming a bit of activation
energy and that always is going to require effort. There will be other folks
around to encourage you if you need some help getting started.

## Questions / Help / Comments / Etc?

Hit us up in #tilde30 on IRC, or the tilde30 thread on bbj, or
list+tilde30@tilde.town :)

See you there!

-- elly

DK30: https://day9.tv/dk30