Project ideas
Question
Which side-project could Denys actually pursue — one that earns money and carries enough meaning to pull? Running backlog of candidates, captured as they surface.
Why this is a tab, not just a list
Ideas here do double duty: they’re candidate income streams toward the making-money $350K goal, and they’re candidate answers to find-pull / antidotes to no-motivation-state. The ones worth keeping are the ones that score on both axes — money and pull — not either alone.
Candidates
Each idea: what it is · money angle · pull angle · status.
- Exhibition — the human psyche as the exhibit — a long-held idea of Denys’s: an exhibition whose object is a person’s own psyche. Core bet: these days people will pay a lot to be entertained, and if this is done really well it could genuinely earn. Money: paid/ticketed entertainment; real upside if the format lands. Pull: an old idea that re-surfaced 2026-07-08 — not a fresh good-day spark, which makes it more durable. Ties to psyche-observation. Path: grow slowly and get more sophisticated over time — show a few things to friends → a free event for students → paid, more elaborate versions. Status: old idea, untested at any scale.
- Discussion / “thinking” club — a recurring club built around structured discussion (Denys’s note: around a “thinking book”; resonated at lunch). Money: not the point at first — primarily to cover the social aspect and to “stay sane with all the AI bullshit going on”; but Denys does expect to monetise it eventually (“Actually, yes. I do expect to make money out of it. Why not”). Pull: directly answers loneliness + the connection lever confirmed on 2026-07-08 (social interaction as a state-lever). Status: raw idea, untested. Surfaced 2026-07-08.
How to evaluate (when a resourced window comes)
- Money axis: does it plausibly move the making-money number, and at what rate? An idea that can’t be assessed against $350K stays a hobby, not a project.
- Pull axis — advance-banking, not a disposal filter: Denys is deliberately banking these as advance material to work through on a “no-motivation” day, when everything otherwise “seems like shit.” That is the prepared-exit lever (2026-07-06 / 2026-07-08) — so the flat-day re-check isn’t a test to discard ideas, it’s their intended use. Still worth noting which ideas hold their charge across states vs. which only glow on an up day.
- Values filter: does it fit — or at least not conflict with — the nature-business direction?
- Cost of first step: what’s the smallest real-world test, and is it cheap enough to just run? Both current ideas clear this (Denys, 2026-07-08) — exhibition: show a few things to friends; club: a first small gathering. Bias toward running the smallest test over deliberating.
Current lean
Both are being deliberately banked as advance material — something to work through on a flat day (the prepared-exit lever). The club surfaced fresh on 2026-07-08; the exhibition is a long-held idea re-surfaced. First steps for both are cheap and confirmed runnable — bias toward just running the smallest test rather than deliberating further here.
Linked themes / system
making-money · nature-business · find-pull · loneliness · no-motivation-state · psyche-observation
Decision log
- 2026-07-08 — Filed. Two candidates (exhibition/events; discussion-thinking club) surfaced on 2026-07-08 once the “no-meaning” state lifted via pre-arranged social contact. Made a tab rather than dropping them into making-money directly because their value is dual-axis (money and pull) and they need pressure-testing before they count as income bets.