Building Side Projects

tl;dr: My secret sauce for staying sharp and pushing boundaries. These aren’t just hobbies—they’re my lab for hacking, learning, and leading.

Building side projects changed my life. Here’s how:

I’m a tinkerer. Always have been. Started young. Self-taught cybersec nut. Learn by breaking stuff.

First, Linux. No mentor. Just me, a terminal, and a 5G connection.

Found Nmap. Scanned everything. Got hooked. Moved to Metasploit.

No guide. Skipped sleep. Long nights. Loved the grind.

Dug into tutorials. Hacked new tools. Tweaked exploits. Made ‘em sing.

Got good at pentesting. Web skills lagged. So I learned that too.

Already knew keyboards. Mechanical clacks fueled me. Helped a bit.

Studied OWASP. Practiced daily. Got decent fast.

Joined open source. Learned from sharper minds.

Started blogging at writings.0x2510.in. Beat my imposter syndrome. Shared ships. Got readers.

Built a Red Team toolkit. Learned from others’ tricks.

Landed Salesforce gig. Secured systems from scratch.

Worked at firms. Gained chops. Got restless. Moved on.

Now I team up with founders. Build MVPs, fix broken systems at 0x2510.in. Tough start. Now it’s tight.

Went full-stack. Tried all tools. Fell in love with ParrotOS.

Craft client solutions. Hack my own too. Always rock-solid security.

Still build side projects. For kicks. Keeps me curious.

It’s not procrastination. It’s wiring connections.

You grow from what you grind. I live that.

Building keeps me proactive. Gets shit done.

Won’t stop. Hack. Share. Forever.

That’s the power of building. It’s not just the code. It’s you.

Few things I’ve learned:

Failure’s fine. First pentest? Crashed hard. Next one? Owned it.
Team up. Solo forever. Paired up. Growth exploded.
Log everything. Future me high-fives past me. Trust.
Sleep on it. Stuck on a vuln for hours. Slept. Cracked it over coffee.
Step away. Coded 18 hours. Fried. Now? Boxing breaks. Sharper hacks.
Read the man pages. Fumbled a script. man saved my ass.
Share back. Helped on forums. Learned more than I gave.
Git’s life. Lost a payload once. Now? Git is my lifeline.
Secure all. Skipped HTTPS once. Regretted it. Now? Locked down.
Design matters. First site? Brutal. Now? Clean and mean.
Template it. Same exploit twice? Scripted it. Saved days.
Gear up. Got a clicky keyboard. Focus spiked. New monitor. Code flows. Invest in you.
Track peers. Twitter, GitHub, X. Snagged tools, ideas, buds.
Skip drama. X fights? Waste. Now? Mute, move on.
Say no. Took too much. Burned. Now? Focus what counts.
Watch pros. Stole habits from pentesters. Leveled up.
Copy, then create. Mimicked exploits. Got the why. Built better.
Ego kills. Thought I ruled. Got schooled. Now? Learn always.
Props to good. Saw a slick hack? Tweeted it. Made allies.
Passion pays. Loved hacking. No cash. Now? Charge my worth.
Ditch domain hoarding. Snagged 20 .in’s. Used none. Buy smart now.
Reddit’s gold. Found gigs, tools, tips. Scroll the threads.
Traffic’s simple. Built a blog. Ghost town. Now? X, Reddit, boom—hits in hours.
Talk it out. First con? Shaky. Now? Regular speaker. Learn more.
Feedback rocks. First PR? Roasted. Now? Help others grow.
Security first. Got pwned once. Never again. Baked in day one.
Optimize later. Over-tuned a script. Tanked. Now? Work, then speed.

Each lesson? A hack. A fight. A win. They shape how I roll today.

Find your lab. Build. Break. Grow. Innovate. Stay ahead.

System stalled? I’ve built MVPs and secured setups for folks like you. Let’s geek out!

P.S. Follow me on Twitter where I rant about code, F1, and clacky keyboards!