[HN Gopher] Ask HN: I am overflowing with ideas but never finish...
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Ask HN: I am overflowing with ideas but never finish anything
I am constantly coming up with new ideas. I read about a new
language, a new framework, a new API and immediately I feel
compelled to build something with it. I start planning the project,
thinking up a design, a name. I set up the new codebase and feel
completely consumed by this new project, even to the detriment of
my day job. After a few days or weeks I completely forget about
it, having not really made any progress on the project and not
having released anything. Looking through my github I've done this
nearly 100 times. Each time I feel like I'm really gonna finish and
release something. I intentionally plan to have extremely minimal
features, cut corners because this is just a first attempt and yet
still it fizzles out. How did you go from a chronic project
starter to actually finishing and releasing projects? What can you
do to keep your focus on one thing long enough to bring it to
fruition?
Author : annie_muss
Score : 129 points
Date : 2023-05-14 07:40 UTC (15 hours ago)
| LastManStanding wrote:
| It is likely you have ADHD, as I do.
| blablabla123 wrote:
| Used to be the same for me and in a way it still is. It's nice
| though to have a long-term project to deep-dive into. The last
| time I started a longer term project, I've set myself some sort
| of deadline, if I can pass this critical problem to get a first
| proof-of-concept after a month or two I continue. So I had a
| hobby project for a few years.
| nerdchum wrote:
| You quit right when it gets difficult whether through fear of
| failure or laziness or not having a skill set or some internal
| flaw you have.
|
| Hard work is painful. Don't expect accomplishing things to be
| fun. Sometimes instead of asking people online how to do hard
| work you just need to conquer the demon inside you and do the
| hard work.
| MPlus88 wrote:
| [dead]
| svnt wrote:
| It is ok. There are many things happening when you pursue a
| project. Only one of them is the output of the project.
|
| One day when you have done this enough, you will stop, and you
| will know something that someone who created and maintained a few
| projects, someone you might presently assess as more
| accomplished, will not know.
|
| You are spending desire to capture diffuse information in your
| own understanding.
| anothernewdude wrote:
| This is called undiagnosed ADHD.
| isaacremuant wrote:
| Not every bad approach is some illness to pop pills about.
|
| Terrible comments
| Cyphase wrote:
| Nobody said to pop pills.
| [deleted]
| citizen_friend wrote:
| Everyone struggles with committing to things. Especially
| projects where the fun is front loaded.
| tikkun wrote:
| Couple things:
|
| Check out the book 'Refuse to Choose'
|
| Do this ADHD screener:
| https://contentmanager.med.uvm.edu/docs/default-source/ahec-...
|
| Maybe your strength is exploration. That's ok. What makes you
| feel like you should finish projects?
| Ballas wrote:
| That is a trait of ADHD. Hyperfocus until you find the next thing
| to hyperfocus on and then completely forget about the previous
| one.
|
| The best way to deal with it* IMHO is to have a long term goal -
| and a reason why you want to achieve it. The reason should be
| chosen so that it motivates you to continue with the project. If
| you cannot think of a good one that will meet that requirement,
| then consider switching to a project that you can think of a good
| reason to keep you motivated. Set targets and then break it down
| into small tasks that are easy to track and achieve (the same as
| you probably do professionally). Ideally this task list should be
| somewhere visible, to remind you of it - along with your long
| term goal/reason.
|
| edit: *it referring to the original complaint. I'm not a
| Psychiatrist.
| _jcrossley wrote:
| Speaking as someone whose partner is a psychiatrist, popping in
| to echo that 1) it may or may not be ADHD, 2) only a doctor 1:1
| can diagnose you, and 3) if it is, medication works wonders for
| many people.
| dgellow wrote:
| It may be good to know that depending on the country where
| one lives getting a diagnostic can be a very long and
| laborious process. Online comments make it sound as something
| simple, it really depends on circumstances. But it's
| definitely worth trying. Finding the correct medication is
| also not always simple, that takes some attempts, not
| everybody reacts the same way to a given molecule, and local
| scheduling laws can make it difficult to get access to the
| most effective ones.
| _jcrossley wrote:
| Oh absolutely agreed. It's a process to work with a
| psychiatrist, and if it is ADHD, medication isn't right for
| everyone.
| jxidjhdhdhdhfhf wrote:
| What is a really good reason that has motivated you? Can you
| give some examples? This is the place where I get stuck.
| mxkopy wrote:
| I'm in the same boat and also find that having a good goal
| can alleviate some of the pains of ADHD. In my case I like to
| set goals that I can easily visualize and associate with a
| tangible outcome. That way when I get off track, I can nudge
| myself in the right direction with reminders of what having
| the end product would be like.
|
| An example is "implement XYZ paper" -> when you get off
| track, think about the algorithm running on your computer,
| how much faster it would be than the previous one, etc.
| rtp wrote:
| If this behavior is due to ADHD, then the best way to deal with
| it is to get diagnosed and then medicated, as medication is a
| really effective treatment.
| b800h wrote:
| "ADD" is so prevalent that it's basically part of normal
| human variation, and has enormous advantages. The name ought
| to be changed. I find the knee-jerk suggestion of medication
| offensive tbh. It's like medicating introversion.
|
| The trick is to learn how to use these personality traits to
| succeed, not to use a chemical cosh to beat yourself into
| being just like everybody else.
| peyton wrote:
| Prevalence in adults is 0.5% to 1%. Around a half of the
| population is introverted. OP, please see a doctor.
| Ballas wrote:
| I agree. I added a note to my comment for clarity - I did not
| want to discuss medication as I'm in no way qualified, but
| nevertheless agree with this sentiment.
| keyle wrote:
| That's a very rash assumption. I'd go easy on diagnosing people
| with ADHD based on 4 paragraphs when it can be explained with
| either unrealistic expectations or lack of discipline.
|
| I'm not saying it's not ADHD, I'm saying it's a risky thing to
| imply it.
| danielfoster wrote:
| As someone with ADHD, the author's issues sound very much
| like ADHD. I have yet to hear of someone who has a "lack of
| discipline" to this degree who does not have ADHD. I used
| quotes because the concept of discipline is also very
| relative.
|
| I have yet to hear of anyone being told by a medical
| professional that they don't have ADHD but instead simply
| lack self-discipline. Yet probably many people become
| depressed or feel hopeless because of comments like this.
| yieldcrv wrote:
| except OP and everyone else that didn't get an ADHD
| diagnosis right
|
| Paradoxical standard
| humanistbot wrote:
| I think you're overreacting. I didn't read that comment as
| "you definitely have ADHD." More like "this behavior is a
| trait many with ADHD have, so it is worth considering seeing
| a psychologist."
| Ballas wrote:
| I agree, but I don't think I diagnosed anybody, or at least
| that was not my intention. I simply stated that it's a trait
| and gave advice that I consider to be valid regardless.
| xboxnolifes wrote:
| Does it matter if it is or isn't ADHD if the suggestion
| works?
| auxfil wrote:
| [dead]
| hnarayanan wrote:
| I do not think this is that risky, it sounds quite clear from
| the parent's description of their life.
| klyrs wrote:
| The OP is clearly dealing with the symptoms commonly
| associated with ADHD. Whether or not they would be formally
| diagnosed by a psychiatrist is actually irrelevant. People
| with ADHD have coping strategies for these symptoms. It is
| wise to share in and learn from those strategies. Note that
| GP did not recommend a pharmaceutical treatment. But, when we
| notice that somebody has the symptoms of ADHD, it's common to
| recommend they see a doctor to have it checked out.
| GuardianCaveman wrote:
| I agree. He could have just cut out the first paragraph and
| it would have been decent advice. Some people have health
| anxiety and suggesting something like this can trigger them
| to obsessively worry about whether this have this or not.
| dndn1 wrote:
| If your work isn't professional, high-stakes stuff for a client,
| perhaps you can take some sting out of the hard finishing part by
| heavily and prominently disclaiming your work, and writing down
| the things you haven't done.
|
| Is the purpose really to release polished products? Or to learn
| and try something new and share it?
|
| By stating the purpose you can make those disclaimers more
| relatable and reasonable and set your users expectations.
|
| Also know that starting, exploring and learning are brilliant
| useful skills by themselves.
|
| Finishing is another skill, and if you want to be good at it I
| think it's useful if you can take some pressure out of it, start
| with low expectations and then with practice you get better, like
| all things.
|
| Also, you can't expect yourself to finish all things because its
| time consuming like all the steps.
|
| Example and shameful plug: models I release here that are
| plastered with disclaimers, but this is what lets me share
| something and move on.
|
| https://observablehq.com/@declann/pension-calculator-ireland...
| goodenoughx wrote:
| I have built and released 4 webapps this year. Not more than 2
| weeks (50hr) i spent on any project.
|
| One of those got about 20k unique users when it's launched here,
| one got few thousand users and another one will be launched next
| week.
|
| Having said that before all of this i spent a year building a
| mobile app which ended up abandoned after all done due to lack of
| confidence. After this failure i asked myself just one question
| "how much more time i have on this planet?" That's it . I became
| super productive overnight after that. I still have slow days but
| mostly everyday equals to 3days for me. Trying my best to cover
| all the lost time.
|
| My advices are 1. Count your remaining days everyday 2. Good
| enough product is enough. Don't think about outcome. Just enjoy
| the process
| softwaredoug wrote:
| Ship incrementally and often
|
| It doesn't have to be "working code". It could be blog articles,
| conference talks, youtube videos, github gists, colab notebooks,
| social media posts, etc other places for your ideas to live, be
| found, discovered.
|
| For example, I've been playing with vector search ideas for a
| LONG time. I have many unfinished ideas. I can empathize with
| your feeling. However, you are never really "DONE" - if you
| shipped something, you'd find the next thing in that area to work
| on. This loop repeats forever :).
|
| If you scanned, the vector search stuff on my blog, you might not
| see the "big idea" yet, but I've written incrementally about
| parts of it, just to get bits and pieces of feedback.
|
| It also helps my focus as it encourages me to keep going in a
| direction (or not) based on traction.
| stevev wrote:
| I believe it's motivation, interest and having some idea of an
| mvp; although a complete product of some kind is great and is the
| end goal, it's best to not be overwhelmed and better to enjoy the
| process.
|
| Anything worth your time will keep you motivated. Otherwise keep
| looking for that product or idea, you haven't hit the big one
| yet.
|
| Start the project using a new language, tool or framework that
| you've been wanting to try out or use; this will motivate you.
|
| As you get closer to a mvp, things will get interesting. Keep the
| mvp achievable in a short time period; everything else that comes
| after are features, enhancements and tasks.
|
| Each iteration you'll find yourself with new ideas and tasks such
| as enhancements and features. Be sure to store these on something
| like trello. A checklist works!
|
| Rinse repeat.
| isaacremuant wrote:
| Take the comments here with a grain of salt. There's a lot of bad
| advice, even of the medical excuse kind.
|
| One thing that jumps out to me is, if you can't finish why not
| scope it in a way you can?
|
| Focus on making it so simple and break it down into steps so
| clear that you can accomplish it in one or two weekends. If you
| can't, make the scope and project even simpler the next time.
|
| Once you get into the mode of simplifying the problem and the
| iteration, completing things becomes easier.
|
| Don't auto diagnose anything. If you think there's a real problem
| go see a professional.
| p0nce wrote:
| What I do is: write in down in a text file. Work on it a tiny bit
| until the idea stops looking so good.
| jon9544hn wrote:
| This assessment, Working Genius [1], helped us out at the company
| I work for.
|
| The balance we were looking for, from thinking up, creating
| ideas, to encouraging (galvanizing), structuring, completing,
| etc, from start to finish.
|
| It helped me explain what I guess I knew, but showed me who I'd
| need to work with, for best results.
|
| Me, at my best (green), I'm great at Invention and Discernment.
| Creating and weeding out the potential solutions. In this zone, I
| can do 8-12hrs easy
|
| At my yellow (I'll do it, but it drains my energy quick) is
| enablement and tenacity. I can encourage others and push through
| my own doubt/insecurity/bug/issue, etc, but anymore than an hour
| or two of this, and I'm drained.
|
| At my red zone (if I start doing this, I start getting
| frustrated) is Wonder and Galvanizing. I don't get energy from
| rallying people or from wondering about too much, I'd rather
| figure it out, not dream it out. If I have to talk to rally
| people over, for more than 5 min, I'm drained and frustrated. Or
| if we are "pointlessly-brainstorming" and "accepting any input",
| I'm checked out 5 min in.
|
| Anyway, there are plenty of good suggestions here, but this
| helped in figure out what kind of people to surround
| yourself/team with for completing projects, etc
|
| [1] https://www.workinggenius.com/
| [deleted]
| liampulles wrote:
| I find "README Driven Development" helps with creating motivation
| for side projects. You create a nicely formatted README which
| describes how to use the end product, and then take it from
| there.
|
| It also has the effect of keeping the design simple, since it has
| to be easy to explain in a README.
| sokoloff wrote:
| I have some similar experience, but I don't think it's entirely
| bad. If the motivation to check out <new language-X> was to learn
| something about it and you cooked up a project with that goal in
| mind, not finishing the project doesn't mean you didn't
| accomplish your _actual goal_ of learning something about
| language-X.
|
| In other cases, I'll start a project only to learn in the course
| of it that it's a bad idea or doesn't have as much upside as I
| initially thought. In those cases, finishing the project would
| lead to a worse outcome than stopping the project once that
| discovery was made.
|
| Projects as an adult aren't the same as school projects. If you
| don't finish a school project, it's bad (at least locally). If
| you don't finish a project as an adult, that could be either good
| or bad.
| bluepoint wrote:
| Maybe you need collaborators.
| ahzhou wrote:
| You're probably over-planning.
|
| Scale back and just plan for a release in 2-4 weeks. Ignore
| everything else outside of what you can get done in that time
| frame. Drop the consideration of things like the domain and the
| name. Fight the urge to play with fancy scaffolding that eats
| productivity. Once you've launched, you'll have a foundation to
| iterate on.
|
| Release early, release often.
| bentt wrote:
| External accountability can help with this. It's one reason why
| building something small helps - you can get it in the hands of
| users more quickly. Then they want this or that and it gets you
| motivated.
|
| Of course, it's hard to build something at any scale that people
| WANT to use. So you might find accountability to start some other
| way. One thing to try is to solve a problem for ONE person and
| make it your mission to make them happy. Maybe your mom has a
| problem that you could fix, or a friend. Maybe it's simple, like
| needing a new way of listing to-dos or groceries. But find a
| problem for one person and tell them you're doing it. That can
| help you find the motivation to finish.
| kissgyorgy wrote:
| Maybe it's not a problem to let your brain wonder without
| constraints deadlines and stress. Let it be creative. You can do
| this and still release something once in a while.
| przybytniewski wrote:
| @annie_muss I'm curious, are those ideas something you'd like to
| share publicly with people? I had an idea to build a service,
| where users could post their "side-project idea", as they don't
| want / don't have time etc to build them and are okay with others
| using these ideas to build something meaningful. I feel it could
| become a place for active startup builders to connect, a place
| for creativity.
| belmont_sup wrote:
| https://kern.al/ does this too, but if you want to do it, just
| do it and draw inspiration!
| echohack5 wrote:
| Journey before destination. Schedule and build in bulk.
|
| Learning Japanese? Take the train/bus/bike and listen to lessons
| via audiobook, listen to Japanese music, etc
|
| Working on hygiene? Add your habits together in bulk. Do your
| face care, teeth, etc all together. Position all the products in
| a line in your bathroom drawer or countertop in the order you
| expect to use them.
|
| Need to exercise more? Schedule your exercise with something you
| already have to do (going to the grocery store, walk or bike) or
| are highly motivated to do (go play DDR, hit the climbing gym, or
| listen to a video game podcast or 4 while running)
|
| Remember that you are human and have a limited amount of
| willpower. So don't leave your goals to willpower, make them
| happen because they have to along the everyday journey.
| chaosharmonic wrote:
| > go play DDR
|
| Can confirm, this is one of the only things ever to get me
| willingly doing cardio on a regular basis.
|
| It also spawned _several_ technical projects: I built a control
| interface for a Cobalt Flux from parts, finally learned to
| solder in order to fix a panel on it, and built a small workout
| tracker as a MERN stack demo and progress log (when I still had
| a place I could play DDR in...)
|
| Which brings me to the piece I'd add to this:
|
| Build the things you want to use.
| bloqs wrote:
| You are high in Big Five trait Openness, but probably pretty low
| in Conscienciousness.
|
| I'm similar. One of the tricks is to focus on making something
| beautiful/complete as the goal. Similarly, you need to break down
| big grand ideas by ordering them more. (Creativity is somewhat
| impulsive and chaotic, work is the opposite). Split grand project
| goals into smaller jobs, reward and celebrate when you complete
| them.
| marginalia_nu wrote:
| My solution to subclinical ADHD is to embark on a project of such
| ridiculous ambition and scope that it's never going to be
| finished anyway, where it's possible to work on different sub-
| projects within the larger project and still move forward.
|
| Don't listen to people who tell you to keep your ambitions small.
| Small is boring and boring never gets done.
| the-printer wrote:
| I think that you're on to something.
|
| Sometimes you've just gotta let your food touch.
| fxtentacle wrote:
| Maybe you just need a friend with business acumen.
|
| I also must have 100s of projects that I started, built a bit,
| then abandoned when I got bored. But for some of them, friends
| and/or acquaintances later asked me to finish it for them (or
| their company). Staying motivated is much easier if you have a
| team rooting for you and excitedly asking for updates. Also, it
| feels fantastic to see your hobby project turn into a real
| product.
|
| But business is a people's job and a team effort. So if you're
| more on the introverted tech side, you might need a trusted
| intermediaty between your problem solving skills and companies'
| unsolved problems.
| reedf1 wrote:
| The last 20% of any project is where 80% of the work lies. At the
| beginning its fun and frenetic, you can write tons of code and
| feel like you've made big progress. The last 20% is integrations,
| debugging, sometimes painful bits you had deferred to later.
|
| What you need is discipline, not motivation. Motivation is
| fleeting, while important, it always runs out. Work on making a
| schedule and sticking to it as a goal unto itself. Make a
| contract with your future self and do it. Discipline is something
| you need to train, so expect to fail at first - but strive to
| improve in a structured way.
|
| Also a note on small thing that has really helped me - don't tell
| anyone about your project till it is finished. I find talking
| about your half finished projects gives a similar sort of
| dopamine hit to finishing and can rob you of the gratification
| which would drive you to finish.
| OJFord wrote:
| But if you don't have the interest to work on something
| (particular) any more, do you really _want_ techniques or
| whatever to push through anyway?
|
| I suppose it depends what the goal is - the question being asked
| suggests to me you want a successful side project (or even full
| time business?) no matter what it is, the tech it uses, etc. If
| that's the case, then I can't speak to motivation, but you need
| to pick a project based on identifying a niche, product market
| fit, etc., not experimenting with what's hot and sparking your
| interest this week.
|
| If that's not right, then I think the question's wrong, and maybe
| you just need to come to terms with it being ok to experiment
| with things, prototype things; that they don't have to turn into
| an MVP that anyone else ever sees, you're just having
| fun/learning about things.
|
| And even if it's a bit of both, you want the successful business,
| just only if you love the tech or idea, then you're still doing
| nothing wrong, because all these so far have not panned out in
| the loving it sense before they had a chance to pan out or not in
| the business success sense (so that's inconsequential).
| olup wrote:
| I was about to say this. I can relate hundred percent to the
| modus operandi, and to be honest I just accepted that I tend to
| loose interest and that's fine.
|
| Moreover, I came to analyse that what was really interesting to
| me was this initial dreaming and planning and obsessing phase
| rather than the long execution.
|
| I tend to discover and learn what I was seeking in the early
| phase. After that the need is less pressing.
|
| Accepting this I made my profession of being an architect,
| planner, discoverer, and not a regular maintainer of things.
|
| Note that I also revisit often old stuff and the spark might
| reignite. I have completed projects in the span of years
| picking up after a long time.
| are4 wrote:
| I'm not an expert, not a person with ADHD, nor an accomplished
| developer who manages to finish his projects constantly. I have a
| few ones going on for years and I struggle with the same issue
| both at work and outside of it. BUT lately things have improved,
| and by a very simple method: I keep a journal. Specifically, it's
| to record what I do daily, what I read, the projects I start,
| etc. Then, I keep a list of daily, monthly and yearly objectives,
| and at the beginning of each month I plan my goals, which are
| mostly projects I want to complete. I keep a list of open
| projects, sort them by priority and stuff them in there each
| month. It's not automatic thet I manage to work or finish the
| projects, but at least it builds some pressure which leads me to
| _remember_ about them, so I 'm compelled to work on them. This
| month I managed to finish my new website revision, which was an
| outstanding issue since last year's june. This makes me happy,
| it's a push to continue on this path, and it lift my morale as I
| see I _can_ complete things.
| supriyo-biswas wrote:
| What has worked for me is trying to build a product and focusing
| on user needs (as opposed to being a technical demo), which need
| not be monetized in any way.
|
| The focus on users makes helps you in planning many aspects of
| the project which you may not have considered otherwise, as well
| as keeps you on track. (Why am I overcomplicating this, don't I
| just need X to work like this?)
| Denwers wrote:
| What other new ideas do you have?
| satisfice wrote:
| Finishing things is overrated.
|
| I think I have the same problem. I solved it by accepting it.
| adnanh wrote:
| I try to complete them faster :)
| SlowAndCalm wrote:
| My own personal 'hack' has been focusing around a core and doing
| things fast. I've done a range of things but they've always been
| roughly relevant to the same field, so I can apply what I've
| learnt previously onto new things. This has also resulted in
| being able to make things faster due to familiarity and having
| dealt with the friction points before. I put 'hack' in quotes
| because it was about a decade(and a lot of money in domain
| renewals) until things started coming together regularly for me.
| artemonster wrote:
| I have exact same thing. I just gave up on trying to "fix it" and
| now enjoy my life with this "trait".
| alex_955 wrote:
| Ideas are worthless. As a project manager and game creator, I can
| see you don't have something to achieve. You masterfully avoided
| the essential: WHAT ARE YOU BUILDING? To me for example, how I
| achieve my goals (coding, framework, design) is irrelevant, I
| just want to get the idea out and implement it in its finest
| details. Also to note, the 80 20 rule: the last 20% of the
| project is 80% of the build time. So, you're focusing in the
| wrong things. Hope this helps, good luck!
|
| ps: also as a side note, if you don't focus on anything, perhaps
| a physical activity or job would do you good: yoga, sports.
| Nidhug wrote:
| Don't jump on the assumption that you have ADHD. Get it diagnosed
| by a competent professional if you want to be sure. But even
| then, I feel like a lot of people get diagnosed with ADHD (or
| self diagnosed) while they probably don't have it (mostly in
| America is my impression).
|
| Instead, it might simply be related to your personnality. I tend
| to be like you, and for me it is simply that finishing all the
| little details at the end of a project get boring and the new and
| grand ideas are more exciting.
|
| Some suggestions:
|
| Surrounding yourself with people who are good at finishing stuff
| can help, especially if it's on the same project.
|
| Cycle between projects: when project A becomes boring, does
| project B become interesting again ?
|
| Filter things to get the things that you're the most excited
| about and focus on the those instead. I found the book
| "Essentialism" to be particularly helpful for me in that regard.
| Check for patterns: what are the commonalities between the
| projects that you are interested in ? Try to find what really
| gets your excited.
|
| Finally, this is perhaps more controversial, but I recommend
| looking into the 4 sides of the mind theories by C.S Joseph on
| YouTube: your personnality type might be ESFJ-ESFP-ENTP-ENFP, and
| learning to leverage your psychology instead of going against it
| can help. It's similar to MBTI but less.. horoscope like in my
| opinion. Maybe the big 5 model also has something interesting to
| say in that area if you're more comfortable with something less
| novel but more accepted within psychology. For me, learning about
| my strengths and weaknesses is something I found extremely
| useful.
|
| Good luck!
| shubhamjain wrote:
| Having gone through the same problem, I think it's important to
| develop a mental framework on how to evaluate ideas. I no longer
| feel excited by the prospect of a new language, or a framework,
| because it would be an uphill battle to drive up the adoption.
| Once you start thinking critically, you'd have fewer competing
| ideas, and hopefully, a longer lasting motivation.
|
| Instead of acting upon the idea by coding it right away, write it
| down and evaluate it against a fixed set parameters. YC
| Application questions are a great starting point [1]. Few
| questions I routinely ask myself:
|
| 1. Will this make money? If yes, how soon?
|
| 2. If you've to tell people about it, where would you go?
|
| 3. Are there existing solutions that solve the same problem? How
| are you being different from them?
|
| 4. How long will it take to ship the first version?
|
| 5. Are you solving a problem that you've personally faced?
|
| 6. Does the solution save time/money?
|
| Having said that, I think it's a okay to act on a burst on
| inspiration once in a while. The problem is that we have often
| direct our energy to inconsequential stuff--name, design, or
| dreaming how this could be next big thing. Just worry about
| shipping and everything will fall in place if the idea has legs.
|
| [1]: https://technode.com/2011/03/18/y-combinator-application-
| que...
| ryanjshaw wrote:
| Been there, done that; +1 from me that this is the right
| answer.
|
| Two thoughts:
|
| 1. Writing things down is critical for me.
|
| You can use paper, Obsidian, Notion, AirTable, whatever works
| for you. But I must get every little thought around the idea on
| paper otherwise it swirls around my head and distracts me.
| Sometimes this can take hours.
|
| At the end of this process I have comfort that I can always
| pick up the idea in the future, when my situation has changed,
| without having lost anything. This eliminates much of the
| anxiety that drives the "I need to work on this now!"
| behaviour.
|
| 2. Sometimes you need to allow yourself time to explore certain
| ideas to answer these questions better.
|
| For example, I've had an idea for a game for _twenty years_
| that my brain still bugs me about from time to time.
|
| Recently I decided to spend a few days watching solo game
| devblogs - that made it clear to me I'm not in a position to
| work on this game idea, or any game ideas, and now I can get
| back to focusing on the ideas that are better suited to my
| present circumstances.
| jschveibinz wrote:
| This is a very good answer, and it can be summarized with the
| word "value." I would just add that value is shared between the
| user and the maker: it needs to be a win for both sides. So
| that "maker value" has to be included in the evaluation.
| Cheers!
| Hortinstein wrote:
| I feel you...this describes a lot of my github. I find I burn out
| after I get the fun technical part done and it's a viable proof
| of concept. The polishing going to release it to others is a high
| burden. I recently have been building something that in
| passionate about with a level of polish that is not typical. Here
| are some pointers from that experience and some of the others I
| actually got into the hands of other people. All depends on your
| motivations but here are some things I think drove me (outside of
| work hobby development)
|
| 1) find something you are passionate about or that solves a
| problem for you or people you care about
|
| 2) "don't try to boil the ocean", sounds like you are already
| trying to scope your projects well, but really focus on the
| smallest minimum viable initial product you can get into the
| hands of others for feedback.....
|
| 3) find users or some external force driving you to finish. It
| helps me when I have some constraint on time that drives
| progress. User feedback and showing your work to someone is
| incredibly motivating.
|
| 4) find the part you usually burn out on. For me it getting the
| interesting part database backed with a web GUI. I always joked
| the perfect UI was command line, but for many users it's not. I
| found a tech stack that I am productive in and enjoy writing in
| (Refine.dev,Supabase). I had tried for years to find something
| that stuck...all the way back to when rails was the new hotness.
|
| 5) Automate work flows so working on your project does not
| involve slogging through manual processes. CI/CD is pretty easy
| to set up these days with GitHub actions, netlify, fly.io etc.
|
| 6) find ways to integrate stuff you read about on hacker news or
| other sites into your project. Use it as a sandbox for testing
| out new technologies you read about.
|
| 7) chatGPT...some of my least favorite parts of a project, chat
| gpt has made immeasurably easier. This resource is truly game
| changing, helping my productivity and letting me quickly
| prototype new functionality.
| xiphias2 wrote:
| You need to realize that those new frameworks and APIs are not
| really new, they are just a different view on the same
| constraints that we all have when programming.
|
| It's 90% marketing: a new tool promises to be 10x faster than the
| other in some circumstances, but forgets to mention that it has a
| lot of important features missing.
|
| Some frameworks compile to JS (a pain to debug), some don't (but
| then they have less clean CSS separation because those tools are
| limited in what they can do).
|
| Then there's the HTML only movement that forgets to mention that
| it gets complicated whenever there are dependencies between data.
|
| The problems you are facing are real, but switching to different
| frameworks will get you different sets of problems that you need
| to face. What's important is to understand what's going on behind
| the scenes and move forward with your project, whether it's in
| the framework you're using or the new one.
| slushh wrote:
| >What can you do to keep your focus on one thing long enough to
| bring it to fruition?
|
| Find a thing that fulfills a lasting desire.
|
| What do those 100 projects tell you about your desires? If you
| cluster them by the underlying desires, which desires are the
| most important to you?
|
| Also: From now on, you are allowed to finish your projects.
| sapientiae3 wrote:
| I too have the same problem. I'm really good at starting things,
| and unless I find someone or some important reason to complete
| it, I seldom get there.
|
| Nowadays I try to only start projects with those in place or else
| I find that I don't fi...
| pengaru wrote:
| It's _always_ attractive to create new problems in the face of
| resolving existing ones. This applies to everything in life.
|
| From what I'm hearing, you're doing the easy familiar shiny new
| parts then distracting yourself with a replacement doing more of
| that part when the shine dulls and Real Work begins.
|
| It's like you're breaking up with you girl/boy friend after the
| honeymoon phase is over, so you can go experience that part
| again, instead of actually doing the work of a long-term
| relationship.
|
| This isn't to say it always makes sense to finish whatever you
| started. Knowing when to cut your losses is an important life
| skill to develop. But starting projects that are within scope for
| you to finish in the first place is also an important skill,
| unless it was just an academic exercise you deliberately started
| to never intending to finish.
|
| My only advice here is to try improve self-discipline and
| actually introspect enough on these matters to make
| starting/cutting losses/finishing conscious choices made after
| weighing the costs vs. benefits etc. Maybe look into existing
| guides/literature for improving self-discipline, overcoming
| adversity, "sticking it through" etc.
| frantzmiccoli wrote:
| Sorry if my answer overlaps a lot with others, I didn't bother
| reading all of them.
|
| I have a similar personality trait. I have grown up observing
| this trait around me, and I think I manage it pretty well.
|
| The best way to control an attention that gets caught from one
| thing to another is to try to build some habits that may give the
| necessary structure.
|
| If I were to give a few advises:
|
| * Recognize that you are already starting some things and cut
| yourself some slack. A lot of people do not start things on their
| own, and even an unfinished project taught you things, the
| younger you are the more relevant this is. * Understand how hard
| it is to finish thing. Having a clear idea about an article for
| my blog takes me five minutes, finishing it ranges from three
| hours to two days of work: redaction, proof reading, picking an
| illustration and all... And this is just an article, if you plan
| to release anything open source. Adding a decent documentation,
| packaging it, making sure that the architecture does not only fit
| a personal need, it's nothing fractional. * When you have an
| interesting idea you often feel compelled to "serve it". In order
| to not have this frustrating feeling to let it down I have a
| simple wiki page where I add all my ideas, one after another,
| with a date. I know it's there and I can come back to it one day.
| * Have a very high respect of yourself. Whatever you are showing
| online should have some degree of completion. I am strongly
| against "oh this was a quick idea I had" public github
| repositories. Whatever it is I put online, I am thinking that
| some people are going to judge me viewing only this side of what
| I did. I impose myself some level of standards. * Pick your
| battles. Know that you will be able to commit to two or three
| ideas a year, maybe keep a list of what you have achieved what
| idea was on your top list and what ideas you actually went
| through. I try to do a monthly follow up on those. * Follow up.
| Linked with the above but probably the hardest to put in place.
| Take the time to have regular meetings with yourself, this
| enables two things: realizing that you have actually done things
| (see first point), and review your idea to kind of revive the
| almost dead one that you find interesting.
| anonzzzies wrote:
| I have the same thing, but it goes away after I launch something.
| So I always went from idea to launch in max 2 weeks, otherwise I
| know I won't execute.
|
| But what worked even better; having employees. Seems as a product
| manager (of multiple products), I don't have this issue at all. I
| only have it if I am coding.
| okaleniuk wrote:
| Be patient... but not it the way you think of.
|
| I started putting things on GitHub in 2012, and as of today, I
| have 55 repositories there. About 10 of them have releases.
| Exactly two of these releases are actually used by other people.
| The other 53 are experiments never has been or never meant to be
| finished.
|
| However! This year I finished a book called Geometry for
| Programmers (and I'm proud of it so here's the link:
| https://www.manning.com/books/geometry-for-programmers). The game
| my brother and I started in 2009 was a failure sales-wise, but a
| pair of algorithms from it became a nice addition to chapter 8.
| The unfinished app that flattens curvy photos I made for my
| father back in 2013 became chapter 7. The thing that undoes
| projection I wrote for myself in 2012 - chapter 4.
|
| Patience and persistence required to finish things come with age
| whether you want it or not. You're probably still at this magical
| phase of your life where you are allowed and expected to try new
| things with no tangible gain in sight, and that's great! Enjoy
| it! It's like planting lots of random seeds not expecting all of
| them to grow or bear fruit. Don't worry, the time to gather the
| harvest will come.
| fwungy wrote:
| Practice non-distraction. Start little.
|
| Decide, for example, that you're going to make your bed. Then
| don't do anything but make your bed. Don't check your phone in
| the middle or go on a side quest to dust the headboard. Just make
| your bed.
|
| Just keep practicing that on easy things and you'll get better.
| The key is to set tasks that you can achieve. As your brain gets
| used to this it will let you do more involved tasks undistracted.
|
| Eventually you'll be able to non-self-distract for 30 minutes, at
| which point you can strategically use your time and make major
| accomplishments. That's about as long as anyone can work without
| some sort of break. If you can stack 10-15 good half hours in a
| day of work you're going to take over the world.
| codersfocus wrote:
| Start a page on eg notion titled ideas. When you have an idea,
| write about it (all the sub ideas) instead of starting it
| immediately.
|
| Then go back to what you were already working on, until they're
| finished. I keep 2 projects active, when I'm tired of one I work
| on the other. My idea list probably has 100 items.
| Jare wrote:
| Stop having new ideas.
|
| It sounds strange, but as long as you keep loving the idea that
| you constantly come up with new ideas, you will continue to do
| so, and the new ideas will distract you from the current
| project(s). Ideas always sound and feel a lot better in your head
| than when you're developing them. They are, in many ways, siren's
| calls.
|
| You new ideas may be either (1) truly unique new things worth
| pursuing, or (2) rehashes of existing ideas where what sounds
| cool is shaping them to your taste and liking, or (3) just plain
| bad ideas. When you are already embarked in a project, the only
| reason to look for a new idea is if it's substantially better
| than the one you're already working on, i.e. if you're working on
| a (3) and you get a (2), or you're working on a (2) and you get a
| (1). Without being experienced and/or exceptional, you will
| almost never have a (1). And if you have a (3), you're probably
| better off not starting it beyond a weekend jam project. So you
| will almost always be working on a (2) and at best you would
| switch to another (2). Nope, looking for and having another (2)
| idea is not worth it.
| amriksohata wrote:
| Or prioritize your ideas and discard the rest, use INVEST
| amriksohata wrote:
| Create an achievable task list using INVEST criteria
| joaogfarias wrote:
| If you don't have experience in building things, why not just
| jump on a stabilised project and build something smaller there?
| Reflect which free software you use the most or find more
| interesting, and then check how you can contribute.
| stuaxo wrote:
| At some point I chose one project as a main one, while I still
| start loads but that one plugs on.
|
| Still, within that project I start things then come back.
|
| When I'm going around GitHub it takes me about a year to get back
| to a project.
| keyle wrote:
| Focus on really short term projects first. Get those done before
| committing to larger projects.
|
| If it is a large project, find a way to break it down in pieces
| you can call done, that can stand by themselves. e.g. MVP,
| service, etc.
|
| At the end of the day, you're going to need discipline to ask
| yourself whether the project is dead because it turned out to be
| a bad idea, or whether the easy part is done and now you're in
| the deep pit of work that has to happen and are being lazy.
| Discipline is the only thing that will get you through that slog.
| brudgers wrote:
| _How did you go from a chronic project starter to actually
| finishing and releasing projects?_
|
| I found the appropriate mediums for creative outlet.
|
| For me, that's only rarely been software.
|
| And often been writing...hence all the HN comments.
|
| At the meta-level, I've learned that mostly my creative output
| benefits from small scale projects which can be completed
| quickly.
|
| And that my large scale projects emerge from a collection of
| small scale projects. They rarely arise from grand plans.
|
| For me, "idea" is a four letter word because ideas are not
| creative because there is no artifact. The only ideas that count
| are ones I must act upon immediately.
|
| Good luck.
| zerof1l wrote:
| I recommend spending more time time to plan and explore your idea
| or project before doing anything. As if you were considering it
| as a potential business. Even if it's just a personal project,
| think about the time and money you'll need to invest, and the
| benefits and value it will provide. Think on why you should
| prioritize this over other tasks or existing projects. Most
| importantly, sleep on it. Get away from it and do something else.
| Spend at least a couple of days on and off planning it. Outline
| and prioritize features and tasks. Decide on the most important
| ones and define the MVP. If, after this planning process, you
| still feel motivated to pursue the project, go ahead! By now you
| should have a good reason and motivation to do it. Focus on
| finishing a simple MVP quickly and then iteratively improve it.
| This will give you the satisfaction of having a functioning
| product.
| jhanschoo wrote:
| If you've nevertheless consistently brought some of these to
| completion, don't be worried at the graveyard of incomplete
| projects. Just as there's a sales funnel for vetting and
| converting leads to good customers with attrition along the way,
| so too there's a funnel for converting ideas to your projects'
| goals with attrition along the way.
| dgellow wrote:
| I've personally been diagnosed with ADHD at 30 years old.
| Methylphenidate is the only thing that seems to work to calm down
| the infinite storm of thoughts/ideas you describe (and avoid the
| spiraling anxiety, etc).
|
| Not saying it's the same for you, but I personally never
| considered I could be ADHD, the diagnostic, and everything that
| comes afterwards has been a life saver for me, that might be
| something to consider. Because your post is basically describing
| my brain process without medication.
|
| All the best.
|
| Edit: I would recommend to check ,,Taking charge of adult adhd"
| by Russell A. Barkley, even if just as a way to see for yourself
| if you match the symptoms or not.
| than3 wrote:
| As several have mentioned this is a common symptom with ADHD,
| what no one has mentioned is it is also a common symptom from
| various types of heavy metal poisoning.
|
| While I am not a doctor or a psychiatrist, you may want to speak
| with one to get an idea of various things you might do to help
| yourself.
|
| I can tell you from experience, structuring your life is
| important when you drift. That means enforcing strong boundaries;
| creating a routine which you do not deviate from, and following a
| process methodically, and other things like meditating and
| visualizations can help. A lot of developing habits is simply to
| set a process and not give yourself the choice to deviate. After
| you've developed them (several months later) you can choose when
| you have the choice; i.e. there are conditions where you can
| reasonably give yourself a choice.
|
| Its very hard to get properly tested for heavy metal poisoning
| because they can really only test for acute poisoning. Chronic
| poisoning commonly goes undiagnosed because the heavy metals get
| bound into your cells and out of your blood so quickly.
| Literally, to test for heavy metals the doctor needs to cause
| acute poisoning by using a chelator. As far as I'm aware that is
| still the case.
|
| Common avenues for heavy metals are lead paint, arsenic in
| contaminated water, and mercury from silver dental amalgams (50%
| by weight; it leaches from acidic foods).
|
| If you've had any of the following symptoms, its more likely this
| is poisoning than anything else.
|
| Mercury: Tremors, Emotional changes (such as mood swings,
| irritability, nervousness, excessive shyness); Insomnia;
| Neuromuscular changes (such as weakness, muscle atrophy,
| twitching); Headaches; Disturbances in sensations; Changes in
| nerve responses; and/or Poor performance on tests of mental
| function; Brain fog; Skin rashes and dermatitis; .
|
| Lead: stomach cramps, constipation, muscle/joint pain, trouble
| sleeping, fatigue, irritability, and loss of sex drive
|
| Arsenic: Has quite a lot see below. https://www.who.int/news-
| room/fact-sheets/detail/arsenic
| iefbr14 wrote:
| I have a lot of those unfinished projects too. I regard them as
| PoC's and that gives me a better feeling about it. If you want a
| better chance of finishing one them, then start with the parts
| that you regard as the least interesting and most tedious. If
| your initial enthousiasm survives that phase, the rest will be a
| lot easier.
| jasmer wrote:
| Hey man, we all do this, it's normal. I don't know what to say to
| improve so much but definitely don't fret.
|
| Maybe try to think a bit bigger picture, and as some authors like
| to do: just grind.
|
| I've read that some authors force themselves to sit down and
| write x-page in the morning and that's that.
|
| You know the Beatles used to clock into the studio every day like
| factory workers - making the best albums of all time was mostly
| not impulsive, it was 'work'.
| endymi0n wrote:
| Here's my hack: Surround yourself with equally capable finishers.
| Once I figured out that there were lots of people out there who
| had great finishing, endurance and project management skills, but
| lacking the knowledge and the creativity in how to build them, I
| just started to put both of them together.
|
| Granted, it often doesn't feel good being pushed into finishing
| your own things, but the joy of having delivered something
| tangible makes up for it. And as a bonus, even in something as
| big as building a company, I got to start hundreds of sub-
| projects and seeing most of them grow to fruitition!
| redgetan wrote:
| But where do you find such community? twitter? indiehackers?
| mmsnberbar66 wrote:
| college friends worked for me
| enos_feedler wrote:
| Another hack that doesnt have a high bar: find a friend who
| is preferably technical and say you want to show them a demo
| of something you are making. Invite them to your "demo" 6 or
| 8 weeks out. Now start building. If you hold yourself to
| sharing that demo with a friend you will be amazed at what
| steps you can take to get there. If not, debug why? Try to
| understanding why showing that demo is not inspiring? Does it
| really excite you? What would it mean for it to work? What
| possibility does it create next?
| hnarayanan wrote:
| This is a great strategy, I think. I am very similar to the OP,
| and this is how I have accomplished anything.
| b800h wrote:
| OP, bear in mind that you're still learning a great deal from all
| this. It's not a valueless activity. You're losing interest once
| the challenge and novelty have gone. It may not be in your
| interest to punish yourself into finishing something like this.
| Turn it into a superpower - you'll make one hell of a consultant.
| ozim wrote:
| I might be less favorable for OP but for me it looks like
| projects stop being interesting when any real challenge comes
| up.
|
| Making up name and setting basics for project sound like OP
| does only easy stuff but has no interest to go into details.
|
| Just like my nephew when playing games, he could "get bored" by
| 5 games in 1 hour. What I noticed was -- he was switching
| because he was bad at these games but would not admit that - so
| he would call game boring or silly without trying to actually
| getting to be good.
| skipintro99 wrote:
| Write down your ideas somewhere, but force yourself to not start
| them right away.
|
| If after a week, two weeks, or a month, you still feel the itch /
| need to start them, then you can start.
|
| This helps me.
|
| A lot of time, having the idea sit on a list and simmer in your
| brain may make you decide it's not worth it to pursue.
| jpalomaki wrote:
| One thing to try: Pick one idea. Book recurring time (does not
| have to be that long time) to work on the project. During that
| booked time, do something that pushes the project forward. Draw
| concrete UI diagrams, write real code, design a few database
| tables. Do not spend that time on "research".
|
| Start by keeping those timeslots so short you must get to work
| quickly to finish at least one thing (artificial deadline looming
| there).
|
| Finish each slot by writing a note about where to continue next.
| Or leave code broken or a unit test broken. Next time you come
| back, you should have something simple and obvious to start.
| hackerloom wrote:
| One suggestion I have is to consider what problems people are
| currently facing that you could help solve with your projects. By
| focusing on a specific need, you can better direct your energy
| and attention towards creating something that is truly valuable
| and impactful.
|
| It's important to remember that building something just because
| it's trendy or new doesn't necessarily mean it will be successful
| or helpful to others. Instead, focus on creating a product that
| genuinely meets a need or solves a problem for your intended
| audience.
| LaundroMat wrote:
| Find users for your project. I've been (and still am) in the same
| boat as you, but the two projects that I haven't abandoned
| started when I made something for someone else. I haven't made
| any money on these projects. Simple user satisfaction is my
| motivation to keep working them.
| akeck wrote:
| I used to be like that, but am now more of a finisher. It's habit
| you have learn and then consistently practice. It includes
| learning to be done vs perfect ("perfect is the enemy of good").
| Sometimes perfect is important to finishing, sometimes not. It's
| also important to know when to let things go. Sometimes a
| project's time has passed. To get started with the practice,
| start with a small thing you've started, take the mindset "I'm
| going to practice finishing", and then finish it. The first few
| times will be hard, but you'll get better every time you go all
| the way through to finish.
| Dalewyn wrote:
| Change your focus from _how_ to instead _what_ you are making.
|
| Taking what you've said at face value, you don't have a clear
| idea _what_ you are doing so it seems inevitable that you would
| "fizzle out". You don't have a _goal,_ you are just wandering
| around aimlessly with your new tools of the week.
|
| So stop making "something", try and go make _a thing_ instead.
| Make a specific goal and strive towards it.
| hknmtt wrote:
| "After a few days or weeks" that is quite pathetic dedication. In
| my case, it's months and years. Even a decade for one project.
| The problem with you and me is that we like the creative part of
| problem-solving. We like to think about solutions. But once we
| figure it out, we are bored with it and want to move on to the
| next challenge. And there is nothing wrong with that, that's a
| role that not many fit and most prefer instructions to do their
| job. And it can be very lucrative role to play in the industry,
| if you have the skill and knowledge for big and mid tech
| companies. So my advice is to do that - become a part of a
| project where you will be the architect or hire people to help
| you materialize your projects. That way you take your creativity
| and problem-solving skills and join them with the skills of
| people who like to code by the book.
| mdp2021 wrote:
| There is plenty of literature, especially practical literature:
| an example can be "Eat that frog ... Stop procrastinating" from
| Brian Tracy. There are also related YT pieces, one sees from
| searching for "brian tracy procrastination".
|
| Maybe you could benefit to refine your framework of practice
| (i.e., in a way, the "coaching" literature that spells out the
| beneficial attitudes)?
|
| Because the direct reply would be "choice and discipline - you do
| things that you elected as priorities by actually doing them,
| "staying there" until satisfactory completion".
| ratel wrote:
| It sure sounds like we have the same problem. For me however
| there are a few things I have learnt:
|
| 1. There is nothing (medically) wrong with you. Although I should
| own a t-shirt saying *) may contain nuts.
|
| 2. No you don't procastinate or are lazy for that matter. You
| probably already moved on to the next 10 things before people can
| come up with that diagnosis.
|
| 3. Yes you are the librarian of the infinite library of
| unfinished projects. In that you do have the tendency to keep
| track of all the projects you have not finished and feel
| inadequate (that moment between projects)
|
| But the honest problem is that projects fizzle when you solve
| your erebra problem. And that is usually way before anything got
| made. Let alone finished. Quick win is to ask yourself: What have
| I learned from this project? And make that the result of the
| project. But after doing that a couple of thousand times you
| start to realise: Why am I learning all this stuff if I never use
| it to create something.
|
| And that is the biggest problem. All your insights never lead to
| anything being created and that sucks.
|
| Possible solutions ( and I personally do all of them ):
|
| 1. Find a job/role/gig where you think of the solutions and let
| other people implement them. Just always remember that it is no
| longer your project. You might have thought of something, but
| without the efforts of others it will never amount to anything,
| ever. So as long as you can respect the work of others and your
| own limitations in doing what they do you will do fine. But is
| harder than you might expect: My rule of thumb is that the moment
| I think they should be able to solve something on their own I
| failed.
|
| 2. Find more challenging problems. I usually do this by trying to
| expand something that spiked my interest to make it more
| generically applicable or asking myself if the problem is
| actually worth a solution ('faster horses') and if the underlying
| problem is not more interesting (mobility). This has two
| advantages: It will keep itching longer and takes you longer to
| scratch. Less projects to add to your library. You might create,
| solving your original itch, products that are basically
| byproducts of the solution you are looking for. Such a product is
| basically what pays my bills at the moment.
|
| 3. For those smaller itchy patches it helps to promise other
| people something: Present your findings, write a paper, make a
| POC by an agreed upon deadline. Now you have to be empatic enough
| to want to meet their deadline and thus create what you promised
| with all the works that comes with it. That is your result. You
| also have to be selfish enough to tell people that is where you
| end your involvement, because it no longer interests you,
| regardless of the plans they have pursuing this further. That is
| a tricky balance to strike and I struggle at times and do it
| wrong.
|
| What ever you do and maybe you have better ideas than the above
| make sure you get to the point were your projects lead to
| something being created, because that really makes the
| difference.
| Ologn wrote:
| In the early days of Android apps I saw that there was an LGPL-
| licensed Java library that could parse Microsoft Access files. I
| wrote a very simple Android UI for it that one could load a file,
| choose a table, and then page forward through it. Four days after
| I had the idea I released the app. At the time there was no other
| Android app where one could just have an Access database file on
| your phone or tablet and be able to read it without some
| convoluted means like net access. So it was popular among its
| niche crowd immediately.
|
| Not so hard to "finish" - within four days I created an MVP that
| people found useful. I didn't stop working on it after four days
| - people asked for the ability to page backwards, which I added.
| Or the ability to search, which I added. Or for case insensitive
| search. Or for wildcard search. Or for a recently opened files
| shortcut if the same file or files were opened frequently. All
| these things users suggested, all of them I added. I even began
| sending patches upstream so that the library would work with the
| then latest version of Microsoft Access.
|
| I had a product which people were using after four days. Because
| I had a free open source library to use and there was no
| competition at the time.
|
| David White author of the game "The Battle for Wesnoth" had a
| similar idea about creating a simple project in a short amount of
| time ( https://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?t=441 ). He had
| the same problem, so instead of something complex and time-
| consuming, he started building something simple.
|
| > After a few days or weeks I completely forget about it, having
| not really made any progress on the project and not having
| released anything...I intentionally plan to have extremely
| minimal features, cut corners because this is just a first
| attempt and yet still it fizzles out.
|
| If you're overflowing with ideas, then work on the simplest of
| those ideas, which will take the least amount of time to
| complete. One with even less of the extremely minimal features.
|
| There's nothing wrong with reading about a new language, a new
| framework, a new API and toying around with it, I do that too as
| do many people. Lately, when I'm not poking at Android Compose
| frameworks, I poke at Stable Diffusion or Deep Floyd or LLMs or
| the like.
|
| But if you want to finish something and never finish something,
| then a project which takes weeks as you say is out. From your
| overflowing ideas, pick the one which will take the least time to
| complete and complete it. If you run into some unexpected very
| complex tangle, which can happen, then if you want abandon it
| like the others and try the next simple seeming idea which comes
| up.
| theshrike79 wrote:
| This is like the ADHD meme of "My hobby is collecting hobbies".
|
| You get excited from the dopamine of New Shiny and as soon as
| that fades, you pick up a new one.
| mav88 wrote:
| You may have undiagnosed ADHD. I found this out about myself a
| few weeks ago and it has explained an awful lot about the last
| few decades.
| andrewstuart wrote:
| Does it matter?
|
| Sounds like you're having fun.
|
| If you enjoy that process then relax.
| yieldcrv wrote:
| Have clearer goals
|
| It sounds to me like you have a lack of consequences
|
| I cant focus until I have external pressure to make more money,
| for example. So I go rent in more expensive trendier
| neighborhoods for the pressure.
| kaesve wrote:
| I'm like this. I have started literal hundreds of projects, most
| of them game ideas. Projects are never _really_ finished, but
| through the years I have become better at leaving them at a
| satisfying point, even making some of my projects public. For me,
| this was a journey. Here's a few lessons I learned for me:
|
| - Figure out why you are doing this in the first place. Usually,
| my core desire behind a project idea is not at all "to make
| money" or "help people", but something more simple. It's to
| figure out how to do something, or to quench my own curiosity. -
| I realized I have a near-unending pool of ideas, but I can just
| do one at a time. Which one to pick? For a while, I chose them
| based on project size; how easily could I gratify that core
| desire? How quickly could I be happy with this project? Almost
| any project that I'd think would take more than a weekend would
| be sent back to the pile. Sometimes it took a while to distill
| the core desire behind a project idea, to really see why it was
| interesting to me. - Doing this also taught me a lot about how to
| make projects smaller. This was extremely freeing. I don't have
| to worry about losing work -- I'll lose maybe up to a day of
| typing, and the real value was working on the project anyway, not
| necessarily the produced artifact. I also realized I can do many
| projects with nothing but a browser and a text editor, and the
| more I used this small tool set, the deeper my understanding got
| and the more I could do in a weekend project.
|
| Over time, I've 'finished' many of these projects, and I've also
| started to learn that finishing really is a skill in itself --
| something that takes practice. More of my projects nowadays are
| at least somewhat ready for public consumption, and I'm still
| getting better at this. I still start projects that I don't
| finish. If an idea is cool enough, I'll still give it a try. Some
| project ideas were so cool/fun to work on that they would just be
| able to capture my attention for the weeks or sometimes even
| months they asked for to get them somewhere (most recently,
| that's https://kaesve.nl/projects/shells/). Some projects can't
| capture all that attention at once, but are still fun enough to
| revisit. They take years, but slowly move forward. And if I
| abandon a project, that's okay too; it usually means I found a
| new, shorter-term project, or that I realize that that core
| desire behind that project idea wasn't so satisfying after all.
| sysadm1n wrote:
| You could have 'Leonardo Syndrome'[0]
|
| [0] https://thoughtfulatlas.bearblog.dev/leonardo-syndrome/
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