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Ask HN: Why is nearing completion so demotivating?

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Re: Ask HN: Why is nearing completion so demotivating?

#51

Post by danschumann »

motohagiography wrote: post #42

Way to get motivated again: I get asked a lot why I left architecture and tech to be in product, and now, bootstrapping a relatively non-technical collaboration platform. My answer is that it's solving similar problems just at a higher level of abstraction. It's moving from a perfect information game of development to an imperfect information game of alignment and persuasion. It's like a context switch from chess to…

Oh yea, I forgot one of my main reasons for not "switching horses" can also be applied to this spell. In the past, when a project reached the un-fun stage, I would convince myself another idea was better, and switch horses, or in a different case I got a job instead. In both cases I regretted not continuing on, and occasionally remind myself not to do either of those mistakes this time. Good call with that.

Re: Ask HN: Why is nearing completion so demotivating?

#52

Post by fiddlerwoaroof »

bigiain wrote: post #31
hoodoof wrote: post #4

Are you me? Programming feels like productive work, and indeed it is, up until just about the point you are at. Now it is not productive work any more, in fact, once the product is finished, programming is counter productive work. Other things need to be done and you don't know how to do them and if you do, are not in the habit of doing them. IOt is easy to get up in the morning and write code, harder to do unfamilia…

24th of May 2018 might not be the best time to choose to launch anything while intentionally having ditched thinking about your T&Cs and Privacy Policy...

I'd just block Europe instead...

Re: Ask HN: Why is nearing completion so demotivating?

#53

Post by StaticRedux »

hoodoof wrote: post #16
hoodoof wrote: post #4

Are you me? Programming feels like productive work, and indeed it is, up until just about the point you are at. Now it is not productive work any more, in fact, once the product is finished, programming is counter productive work. Other things need to be done and you don't know how to do them and if you do, are not in the habit of doing them. IOt is easy to get up in the morning and write code, harder to do unfamilia…

Hey wow that's great advice I think I'll learn from what you say here.

This might be the funniest comment/reply I've ever seen on HN.

Re: Ask HN: Why is nearing completion so demotivating?

#54

Post by riantogo »

mikekchar wrote: post #22

When your project is finished, the dream is dead and the reality is born. The death of a dream is like the death of a friend. It's probably been with you for a long time -- longer even than the length of the project. A dream is the manifestation of what's possible. When it is over, the possible diminishes very quickly and you are left with what actually is. Will people respond well to your project -- in the dream sta…

This is exactly it. Tens of my personal projects have died in this stage. It was always much easier to move on to the next dream. There is always the next big problem that could use a solution. Why not build when it is what we do best? Rinse, repeat.

I took a break from side projects for several years but recently got back to it and couple weeks back finished building. It is the same story all over again. Same feeling. I'm dreading what comes next.

Re: Ask HN: Why is nearing completion so demotivating?

#55

Post by mrieck »

harel wrote: post #43
mrieck wrote: post #38

Have money again? Getting people to use it for free will probably be a challenge... getting people to pay may be nearly impossible. Here's my animation platform that gets no traffic as an example: https://www.superanimo.com Maybe yours will be different but at one time I also thought "if I release it, the people will come." Luckily I wasn't invested too much in a certain outcome after launching. Otherwise I would hav…

1. What didn't work for you might work for someone else. 2. We have no way to make a comparison with what you did to what he's doing - see #1.

That's why I said 'maybe his project will be different.'

Reading the post again I think he's saying he'll have money again because once launched he'll stop working on it and go back to freelance. In that case it makes sense. I thought he was assuming he'll bring in profits once launched - even though he hasn't gotten user feedback yet. IMO that type of thinking is premature, even if you have the best idea/execution in the world.

Re: Ask HN: Why is nearing completion so demotivating?

#56

Post by drenvuk »

This is somewhat on topic but people may consider it unrelated.

There is a business book that explains the disconnect between many people who say they want to start a business but only focus on the task that they're good at. One of the premise inside the book was that a baker started a bakery and ended up only baking and leaving all of the managing and appointment making to her employees. All of the employees quit and she ended up taking on all of the work herself, quickly burning out. Despite the fact that building a business was the task that she should have been trying to figure instead of just the act of baking which. She was good at baking, thought she should open a bakery, didn't realize that a baking business is only 1 part baking and 8 parts baking system building. I wish I could remember the name of the book.

The lesson that the book tries to teach is that the business is actually the product customers will give you money for, not single piece of software that you're programming right now. If you organize your thoughts around it that way then you might be able to become more motivated. You've only really built a single part of your business system. The rest of it still needs to be built and you still need inputs, cogs and outputs for it.

I'm not sure if this is helpful.

If you don't mind me asking, did you get validation for your idea and product before spending two years building it out?

Re: Ask HN: Why is nearing completion so demotivating?

#57

Post by danschumann »

gnl wrote: post #32

I'm currently in a somewhat similar situation, although with a smaller open source project, and that's exactly what I've been struggling with the last few weeks. There are some great points in the comments here, here are my 2 cents and what I'm currently doing. Like someone here said already - the second 90% are no fun. The first 90% are fun, launching is fun, people using and loving your software is fun and eventual…

> shipping is a feature. It's your most essential feature.

Very true. It's a feature, but I think I've been looking at it as a liability.

Re: Ask HN: Why is nearing completion so demotivating?

#58

Post by btilly »

You have been working for 2 years and have no customers?

I guarantee that you're thinking about your problem wrong. There are things that people want to do that you don't know yet. There are things that are obvious to you about how to do things with your software that nobody will be able to figure out. You won't be able to learn anything about that until you have real people using it.

Go out. Find a potential customer. Preferably paying. Non-paying is better than nothing. Sit down with them, offer them a demo, train them, get feedback, and try to make them happy. If you can't do that, and can't take the feedback, then you not only won't succeed, you never had a chance in the first place.

Re: Ask HN: Why is nearing completion so demotivating?

#60

Post by SubiculumCode »

A lot of times by the time I am almost finished with a project I am bored with the project...and only the most tedious stuff is left. For me, formatting my bibliography. Just kill me now is how I feel. (bibliograpic software does not help btw...too many errors.)
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