41–50 of 58 posts
Just so you know, I am the same way. However, instead of ending up with 100 mediocre/small projects, we end up with 1 or 2 really good ones. You are perfectly normal and are doing nothing wrong.
One of these days!
Maybe find a partner who can vet your ideas.
2) Create an idea journal - The world may not be ready for some of your ideas, but in a few years, who knows.
There is no losing. You keep fighting until you win.
In a way what you're giving up on is not an idea. You're giving in to your fear of what it might mean if you don't succeed with the idea.
And it's ironic - because the only way you could fail is if you give up.
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My recommendation would be to make a list of 100 ideas you've had, then give it a week to add on as many ideas as you like.
Then identify the 10-20 ideas that fall in the intersection of your natural abilities and passions. Then pick 2 and start working on both of those with a stated amount per day and with no leeway for changes until end of 2011.
So you commit to 3 hours a day on these 2 ideas - every single day. No matter what happens.
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Also your devotion should be to the product you're making and to the execution of the idea. Once you've decided on the 2 ideas, then it's not your job to visualize failure. It's to execute and to visualize only success.
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At some level you're scared of failure and you just have to grow some balls and take a 100% shot. If you have a son down the line, or already have one. What would you want him to think of his father as -
Someone who worried about what users might say about his work and quite without releasing anything.
OR
Someone who made something magnificent - who fucking cares whether anyone else sees the magnificence or not. It's you making it for yourself, as an artist. If you're happy with what you make then nothing else matters.
You can't talk yourself out of talking yourself out of ideas. What's happening is that your mind is telling you that your overall approach is wrong. You're thinking of ideas in a bottom-up, depth-first manner. You think of a product, and then your mind races through a chain of obvious conclusions of what the product and its features should look like. Then a few hours later your mind rejects it as crap. That's probabl…
tl;dr: Don't work on an "idea," design a "product."
1. Friend: "I have an idea,...., but i'm not sure if it's great or crap. " 2: Me: "Don't worry it IS crap." 3. Friend: "Screw you, i'm gonna build it and show your ass that it's not."
He made that app, and sold it to 4 people. It was more of an (offline) app, so couldn't link it here.
Instead of letting you talk yourself out of ideas, let others talk you out of the ideas. Thrash anything you come up with. Ask other potential users if they would use it. Ask if they would pay for it. I think you're probably wasting a lot of time jumping into the code without talking to others. Before you know it, you'll hear "You know, that's a really good idea..." You'd actually be surprised how honest friends can…
1) Tell your friends about your idea - If they are out in public, and worth pursuing, you will be less likely to abandon them 2) Create an idea journal - The world may not be ready for some of your ideas, but in a few years, who knows.
As for the idea journal, worst case, in a few years you can look back at all these ideas that you had, did not execute on and that somebody did with (some) success. Happened to me just today :)