Ask HN: How can I pick a side project and stick with it?

I find it much easier if I pick projects that I actually could benefit from. For example I started working on a note taking app a little while ago, because I couldn't find one that I liked. I know I will probably not get a complete return on my time investment, but it keeps me motivated to finish since I know I can make it exactly how I want and end up with a product perfectly suited to me.

The only reason I completed a side project was because I had people that I cared about that wanted my side project done to help them out. In other words, I had social motivation and collaboration. For me, going completely alone on something is much more difficult because its like the tree the forest making no sound (perception) if no one is there to hear it. It doesn't seem to have that connection or impact of meaning unless I have others that care that I have direct interaction with.

I see a big disconnect between:

“ I know! I'll write a roguelike in X! Five minutes later, I'm thinking: fuck roguelikes! I'll write a graphical solitar card game with Y! Five minutes later, I don't care for it anymore, and would rather write an isomorphic strategy game in Z.”

And:

“If you are no longer interested in a project you started, maybe you already got what you came for.”

There is no way that you got what you came for in those five minutes.

There’s several orders or magnitude that fit into this disconnect and it just says “ADHD-I” to me.

...and I feel my eyes roll back into my head when I read this:

“...a personality type (that is definitely not ADHD)”

...because the invention of new personality types and the stigmatic treatment of ADHD is just... very shallow.

You sound like you like motivation.

"Motivation" is the "why?" of what you're starting. If you start a project and exhaust the "why", it's ok to stop there.

Is it curiosity? Is it want to learn something new? Is it want to check out a new technology? You could well answer these questions without actually finishing a project (it the final project itself wasn't the original "why").

If you want some real life "why"s, you could check out one of the many Covid-19 project aggregators. Here is an aggregator of such aggregators: https://covid19projects.now.sh/

I have battled this since programming became my profession. Over years I was trained to create in ways that maximize income, and stop when there is no income link. Decades later, this made working for passion very difficult.

Here are a few ideas that seem to consistently help me.

* one, sheer willpower. It's a muscle that needs building, but keep going when you don't have any further interest for the sake of completing the task. Even when it feels like torture. It's about forcing yourself to the finish line. Often the interest comes back later.

* Move the finish line closer. Formally write down what you want to develop with milestones, with a go/no go decision at each milestone. If you decide not to continue at a milestone, that was part of the plan, so you completed the project.

* work on things that develop skills you expect to bring to the workplace and apply there. That's a pretty direct link to income.

* work on things you want or to keep current with younger hires -- I'm learning gitops on k8s at home, and packaging charts to self-host some things I've wanted at home anyways. Even though I manage these days, it's important to understand how things work to a decent degree in order to have meaningful discussions with the broader team. I know managers who get by without that, but I'm not one of them.

For what it's worth, continuing on because that's what you planned to do sometimes leads to a renewal of interest later in the project.