This post is merely my opinion as a SWE on how both junior/aspiring and senior dev should approach projects in programming, not as an most efficient or more profitable way, although its more inclined to the opposite side.
I know none of us like all the same AI slop Saas, all the todo list’s, financial assistant or others low creativity project people generally vibe code and throw on an React or NextJs or anything else frontend got running these days. In both comercial and personal projects, I always viewed these type of projects to be lackluster, and wouldn’t see a reason to use them as portifolio also, I do believe delivering them can show proficiency in some language or framework, but also just puts you as one of many
But recently I became an huge fan of just creating anything that I think can be fun and challenging, mixing just enough things I don’t know yet so the end result is both a really fun project and a better version of me as a developer, my current project Im working on mixes C++ ( a language I’ve never worked or studied) and AI principles and development (such as RAG and fine tuning). I think it shouldn’t be only something difficult, as you’ll find a hard time having the motivating to finish it (aside from the conquest of doing something hard, which is good enough for some people, but it’s easy to reconcile with something fun as long as you think hard enough of a good project)
Software Engineering has an absurd depth, learning a bit or a lot of everything is going to make you a better SWE, learning functional programming can make you review the necessity of each class and nested classes in your Java program, learning low level with C can make your typescript microservices more memory conscious, there’s never going to exist a drawback in seeking more knowledge.
For starters in programming could make the learning journey easier and more fun, learning how to actual code instead of delivering some useless product. And for more experienced engineers could be the edge into achieving bigger things, higher salaries comes with difficult solutions, and studying more and diving head first into everything you don’t know yet will make you each day more crucial, more decisive as an engineer who solves difficult problems and have creative solutions