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Ask HN: I am overflowing with ideas but never finish anything

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Re: Ask HN: I am overflowing with ideas but never finish anything

#81

Post by klyrs »

keyle wrote: post #39
Ballas wrote: post #12

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 p…

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.

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.

Re: Ask HN: I am overflowing with ideas but never finish anything

#83

Post by bloqs »

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.

Re: Ask HN: I am overflowing with ideas but never finish anything

#85

Post by mmsnberbar66 »

redgetan wrote: post #59
endymi0n wrote: post #41

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 som…

But where do you find such community? twitter? indiehackers?

college friends worked for me

Re: Ask HN: I am overflowing with ideas but never finish anything

#87

Post by chaosharmonic »

echohack5 wrote: post #75

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…

> 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.

Re: Ask HN: I am overflowing with ideas but never finish anything

#88

Post by svnt »

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.

Re: Ask HN: I am overflowing with ideas but never finish anything

#89

Post by dndn1 »

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...

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