Ask HN: As a programmer do you have ups and downs and periods of intense doubt?

Have you checked the leanstartup and customer dev methods ?

The goal is to quick test and fail your assumptions.

Because you need true users to continue your project.

Fake it before you make it ! ;)

Fear of failure is best dealt with by successful delivery.

A story from the dark ages (pre-internet).

I'd landed a contract to pioneer the automated digitization of passport photographs and the printing of those photographs on credit cards. Unfortunately, this project was way above my skills at the time and every day I regretted taking the job. But, day-by-day my knowledge grew and at some point I started to see a way out. In the end it took almost two years from start to working prototype scanner / printer but my self-doubt was dealt with on the day the customer took delivery of the first machine. As long as you are making progress (even if it is slow) you'll get there, if you give up then that's the end of the line.

So don't give up, just keep plugging away at it. And if you can, find that buddy. It's more fun that way anyway.

You need to stop worrying about it being a success, and instead concentrate on making as good a product as you can, for your own education and pride. Imagine you are going to submit this along with your next job application instead. You want to showcase your programming abilities, not in your abilities as an entrepreneur. Change the focus of WHY you are starting this project, maybe even assume that it won't be used at all except to show any potential employers what you can do.

One thing that comes to mind as an antidote is to market-test your ideas before writing much/any code. This has the benefit of helping you prove the idea without wasting time on it, AND get you a group of people waiting for your thing so that you can be motivated to finish it. If you read some of these entrepreneurial bloggers (Pat Flynn, Tim Ferris, etc), they talk about this in detail better than I could. Depending on what the idea is, go to forums related to the topic and get some credibility by helping people. Then ask around about your idea or pitch it as "coming soon". (Don't be dishonest and say it's built when it's not). Set up a quick MailChimp or SurveyMonkey form, blog, etc. to start a discussion around your product and get an core group of interested potential customers. Try not to be biased one way or another - if there's a market and you think it could earn an income with reasonable effort do it. If not, don't.

Now, why have I done that and _still_ not finished this idea....