Choose your problem

You have a list of problems. Now pick one to build for over the coming weeks.

This choice matters more than any coding decision you'll make afterwards. A well-chosen problem makes everything else easier: you'll know what to build, you'll know when it's working, and you'll actually want to finish it.

A badly chosen one means weeks of effort on something you abandon.

Score each candidate problem out of 5:

1. Is it real? Have you seen it happen, or did you imagine it?
2. Can you build it? With Scratch, HTML/CSS/JS or Python — the tools you actually have
3. Will you know if it worked? Can you test it on a real person?
4. Do you care? You'll be living with this for weeks

That last question is not sentimental. Interest is what gets you through the difficult middle part, and every project has one.