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

We all have different pools of energy that we pull from each day that motivate us to get things done. According to the Kolbe Index, the 4 pools are follow through (FT), fact finder (FF), quick start (QS), and implementer (Im). Everybody has different starting values in each pool. People with high follow through like to work through a list or project until it’s complete. High fact finders are motivated by learning new things. High quick starts are very creative and constantly looking for something new. High implementers like to build and create things. Nobody is high on everything. From what you described, you sound like a high quick start and low follow through (and probably higher fact finder and lower implementer but I don’t have a lot to go off here). As others have noted, the high QS + low FT combination is perfectly correlated with having ADHD (but this is not a diagnosis tool!)

You can find your actual Kolbe by taking the Kolbe-A index at Kolbe.com (No connection, just think it’s an amazing tool, does cost $55 and their website is truly terrible)

The bigger take-away though is there’s nothing wrong with any Kolbe combination. They all have different strengths and weaknesses. For example, you would be very good in a startup environment where things are rapidly changing day to day and where others would get stressed out. But you might need someone else with more follow through to see your ideas to completion, or maybe you need to find ways to keep your fact finder satisfied as you finish a project by not planning everything out at the beginning. The best founding teams usually have complementary Kolbe’s so they fill each other’s missing energies.

Once you know your Kolbe and understand how each dimension is impacting you, you can start hacking your life to take advantage of your Kolbe instead of fighting against it. This is particularly hard for low follow-throughs (including me!) because most of society is optimized for high follow throughs, leaving us feeling like something is wrong with us when there isn’t.

I could talk about this all day, feel free to hit me up if you have more questions. I’ve been thinking about writing more detailed tools to help explain these concepts since Kolbe does a terrible job on their own.

I think this is a common trait of creative people. After all, we want to create new things, not necessarily shepherd products through often-tiresome paths to completion or marketability.

Some random thoughts:

I watched a documentary about the production of the new Mustang at GM. The head of the project said something like "Once the initial excitement and enthusiasm are over, it's 95% bad news."

Something I have been occasionally thinking of doing is making a list of all my abandoned projects. Sort of a litany of my failures. A reverse-CV of sorts.

In my latest project (a 3D Common Lisp system), I made two decisions which have so far kept me involved. (1) I am not aiming at developing a commercial system. This means I can ignore necessary-but-tedious development a commercial system would require. (2) Since the system is a sandbox for me to explore my ideas, I can work on whatever interests me most at any given moment. This keeps me motivated, though to be honest I still go through slow periods. I have written some blog posts about this: https://kaveh808.medium.com/

It does help to be clear about why you are doing what you are doing. Whether it is intended to make money, solve people's problems, is just a hobby akin to picking up painting.

Overthinking leads to paralysis. Take it one step at a time and try as much as possible to concentrate on what motivates you, rather than imagining and enumerating all potential pitfalls.

I'll leave you with a quote by Ray Bradbury: "You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down."

>> How did you go from a chronic project starter to actually finishing and releasing projects?

Why do you care if you finish them or not? I mean that seriously.

This isn't your day job so j presume you're doing this for fun (intellectual stimulation) -once it's no longer fun, and all projects stop being fun sooner or later, then you stop and move on.

If you're doing this for fun, then recognise that "completion" is not a goal, and keep doing it.

If there's another motivation - perhaps you underlying motivation that prompted this message - then you need to acknowledge that and figure out what project best fits that motivation.

For example if your motivation is to ship, and you are aware of that, then you won't be distracted by a new shiny thing because you can objectively see that it will hinder your goal.

But be honest with the goal. If you're honest then the goal will be all the motivation you need. And if the goal is "for fun" then be honest about that, and don't feel bad for abandoned projects.

> I just wish I had another dev to team up with, one with better nextjs/UI skills than me would be nice.

Maybe I should drop you an email

I was the same but figured it out.

I documented my process here: https://medium.com/@alibadereddin/personal-kanban-with-trell...