The Useful Little Tool
Your project begins with a recurring inconvenience and a modest improvement. Its appeal is direct usefulness rather than the size of the ambition.
A prompt to try: Make a one-page aid for a task you know.
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Career game
What Kind of Tiny Side Project Would You Enjoy?
Pick a small project for fun, with no income promise or pressure to turn every interest into work.
Faster personalizationUse your name and profile photoOptional. On mobile, Facebook may use a secure browser window to complete sign-in. Manual play remains available below.
For entertainment: your answers select a fictional story, not a factual prediction. See how this game works ↓
Inside the game
How your choices shape this result
The answer weights below are the rules used by this game. Add the points from your chosen options; the outcome with the highest total wins. These points express our game design, not a measurement of you or anyone else.
When outcomes tie, a repeatable calculation chooses between them. Names can affect that tie-break; they do not reveal private information. Percentages, initials, ages and dates in outcome titles are authored parts of the story, not calculated probabilities or forecasts.
You would rather spend an hour…
- Drawing a small illustrated worldThe Pocket World: 3 points; The Neighborhood Notebook: 1 point
- Collecting local storiesThe Neighborhood Notebook: 3 points; The Five-Minute Challenge: 1 point
- Building a playful challengeThe Useful Little Tool: 1 point; The Five-Minute Challenge: 3 points
- Making a useful checklistThe Useful Little Tool: 3 points; The Pocket World: 1 point
The project helps people…
- Notice the people around themThe Useful Little Tool: 1 point; The Neighborhood Notebook: 3 points
- See an ordinary idea differentlyThe Pocket World: 3 points; The Five-Minute Challenge: 1 point
- Do a routine thing more easilyThe Useful Little Tool: 3 points; The Neighborhood Notebook: 1 point
- Try something with friendsThe Pocket World: 1 point; The Five-Minute Challenge: 3 points
A good first version is…
- A single finished sceneThe Useful Little Tool: 1 point; The Pocket World: 3 points
- One carefully gathered storyThe Pocket World: 1 point; The Neighborhood Notebook: 3 points
- One round that makes senseThe Neighborhood Notebook: 1 point; The Five-Minute Challenge: 3 points
- One page someone can useThe Useful Little Tool: 3 points; The Five-Minute Challenge: 1 point
Explore the possible outcomes
You can read every outcome before playing. Compare a theme with a real example from your life, and keep any part that gives you a useful question.
The Pocket World
Your project gives a small imagined place enough detail to feel lived in. A single scene can invite curiosity without requiring an entire epic.
A prompt to try: Draw one room and explain three objects inside.
The Neighborhood Notebook
Your project pays attention to stories close by. The value comes from listening carefully and representing people with their permission and context.
A prompt to try: Ask permission to record a short local memory.
The Five-Minute Challenge
Your project creates a short experience people can actually finish. Clear rules and a satisfying choice matter more than adding many features.
A prompt to try: Invent a tiny game and test one round.
Read beyond this game
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Turn a playful career label into practical questions about skills, work conditions, and small experiments without treating it as hiring advice.
2 min read →About this game
The idea behind Side Project Spark
Pick a small project for fun, with no income promise or pressure to turn every interest into work.
This game contrasts The Useful Little Tool, The Pocket World, The Neighborhood Notebook, and The Five-Minute Challenge. Choose the scene you would enjoy, then compare the result with another route through the story. The scoring guide on this page shows exactly which themes each option supports.
Consistent, not predictive
Your choices add the points shown in the scoring guide above; a repeatable calculation resolves ties. The same answers return the same result. No answer can verify a fact, identify another person, or forecast a real event.
A better conversation starter
Compare your Side Project Spark outcomes. Read the other person’s story as well as your own, then each explain one choice you nearly made differently.
Take the idea further
- Make a one-page aid for a task you know.
- Draw one room and explain three objects inside.
- Ask permission to record a short local memory.
- Invent a tiny game and test one round.