Wanted: Side Projects

I'm a microphilanthropist. We (the Experiment Foundation) don't do big money projects. We give out <$10k grants to projects that our science angels point us towards.

The first question everyone asks: Is that enough?

For what we're trying to accomplish, yes it is. I've found it particularly useful for a few categories.

The first, perhaps unsurprisingly, is early career folks. The small grants can kickstart questions and careers. It can get them out of an advisor's shadow and put them in open water for the first time. And the nudge of belief (in the form of financial support) can help build confidence.

The 1517 Fund does this, too. They've created an entire investment fund with this thesis: small grants to a gang of smart people and let them blossom together. Unitary Fund is funding quantum computing work at this level. Emergent Ventures has used this strategy to grow its community of progress thinkers. This feels like a secret that's about to get out. Forget ad spending, grant programs are the new marketing budget.

The second type of project is from researchers working in the Global South. Access to larger pots of institutional funding is harder for these scientists, and a small grant can help get a new project going. We do some work here, but we could and will do more.

The last group has been surprising: more established researchers with unusual side projects. But the good answers only emerge when the question is phrased specifically: "Do you have any “so crazy it just might work” side projects you want to get off the ground?"

The question serves several purposes. It filters for creative people who are overflowing with ideas. And it brings out their wildest experiments.

The $10k grant amount is perfect for this type of project. It's enough to start — an excuse to start. It's also a small enough amount that people seem OK with failure. If you take on a $1M grant, there's a heavy dose of responsibility. Salaries and livelihoods are at stake, and some grantor is most certainly expecting results. At some financial level, a grant goes from being an enabler of creative freedom to a constraint. My guess is that number, for a majority of people, passes that subconscious limit at around $15k.

The institutional infrastructure — especially small bits of funding — for side projects is scant. However, I don't think that's the limiting factor. Realistically, I think there's a global shortage of quixotic side projects.

Some examples:

I recently watched Joe Barnard successfully land an amateur rocket after seven years of learning and sharing, even though he started with little relevant experience.

Years ago, I got a tour of Charm Industrial when it was still Peter Reinhardt's side project (others were involved, and were there full-time), set up in a backyard in an industrial area in the Bayview neighborhood of San Francisco. There was a distinct feeling of inventive freedom in the air. Now they're leading the nascent Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) industry.

OpenROV was a side project for years. We were building a robot to explore an underwater cave, purportedly filled with gold, before the project took on a well-documented life of its own.

I puzzle over why we don't see more ambitious side projects. They're unconstrained by having to find product-market fit or needing to appease peer-review panels. They’re accessible to almost everyone with an internet connection. And they're fun!

Sometimes they stay small. Sometimes they take hold and grow. I just wish there were more.

If you have one, especially if it's in the neighborhood of these categories, please bring it to Experiment.