Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How I stay motivated as a solo creator

herman.bearblog.dev

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 123 posts

Re: How I stay motivated as a solo creator

#81

Post by gwervc »

sph wrote: post #69
whartung wrote: post #2

First, I'm easily distracted. But, the real issue in working on something, for myself, that is engaging, and pushing back the "WTH are you wasting time on this for?". It's all very fleeting. It's not like I have some other burning passion to work on instead, some "if you do this you'll make lots of money instead of those toys you make thing". I don't. But, especially being older, it can be a trick at times to perseve…

Thanks, it helps to see that I'm not the only one struggling. I've been building a business solo over the past year, reached 80% in late spring, ready to a closed invite launch and... lost all motivation. Between the fear of seeing savings go down without anything to show for it, the utterly demoralising job market during which it took 6+ months to get one solid freelance opportunity, and the constant nag that I am w…

I can relate being allergic to day job: I have one and hate the lack of freedom that come with it (in addition to it not being interesting). Doing it has a few expected advantages such as a regular paycheck and healthcare. One unexpected advantage however is how it motivates me to work on my side project so I can change life eventually.

On a motivated day I can work as much a full day of work (7h), most of the time I'm spending a couple of hours on it. Everyday (mostly). I find it easier to be consistent by having a day job that firces me to wake up in the morning than when I have a full empty schedule.

Re: How I stay motivated as a solo creator

#82

Post by melvinroest »

raffraffraff wrote: post #78

My wife hit upon something that might be interesting to anyone reading this. I don't think any of the comments here directly put their finger upon it. Some possibly unimportant background: my wife used to suffer from depression, but in the last 10 years that has subsided, mostly through self-guided philosophy and practical stuff. What remains is social anxiety and a life-long history of avoiding working for/with peop…

I recognize this. Strongest case in point, when I was still in uni we had a course called "Multimedia Authoring" (whatever that meant). The teacher was amazingly flexible and said something along the lines of "learn whatever you want to learn as long as you create a project out of it."

I happened to be a student representative of computer science at the time for high schoolers and their parents. One parent ask "can you make iPhone apps?" I told them "no but I can learn it." He offered me to pay a - at that time - pretty nice amount of money.

That was my highest grade for a course ever. I loved the learning process as well!

Re: How I stay motivated as a solo creator

#83

Post by WhrRTheBaboons »

gagege wrote: post #19
whartung wrote: post #2

First, I'm easily distracted. But, the real issue in working on something, for myself, that is engaging, and pushing back the "WTH are you wasting time on this for?". It's all very fleeting. It's not like I have some other burning passion to work on instead, some "if you do this you'll make lots of money instead of those toys you make thing". I don't. But, especially being older, it can be a trick at times to perseve…

I have the same problem. I see all these hackers out there making (something like) the millionth travel blog and sticking with it for years and somehow ending up making a decent income off of it. But I'm sitting here wondering if my potentially cool game idea that has never been done before is something that the world really needs, then I quit after about a week because of those thoughts. What drives people?

the fact that even if it has been done before, the experience of making it yourself will benefit you in the long run

Re: How I stay motivated as a solo creator

#84

Post by ssss11 »

raffraffraff wrote: post #78

My wife hit upon something that might be interesting to anyone reading this. I don't think any of the comments here directly put their finger upon it. Some possibly unimportant background: my wife used to suffer from depression, but in the last 10 years that has subsided, mostly through self-guided philosophy and practical stuff. What remains is social anxiety and a life-long history of avoiding working for/with peop…

I love this comment thanks for sharing

Re: How I stay motivated as a solo creator

#85

Post by redbell »

> When you're working solo, however, there isn't a specific thing you have to do. No pre-set route to take. If I decide to not do any work today, no-one will notice..

I believe the above statement is the single, most common denominator among all indie hackers (or, solopreneurs) and I have to admit that it is too challenging to master and get around it.

> I'm not on traditional social media so don't have that eating away at my attention, but Hacker News is pretty good at derailing my day. So is YouTube to a lesser extent.

Same here..

Re: How I stay motivated as a solo creator

#86

Post by sph »

gwervc wrote: post #81
sph wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, it helps to see that I'm not the only one struggling. I've been building a business solo over the past year, reached 80% in late spring, ready to a closed invite launch and... lost all motivation. Between the fear of seeing savings go down without anything to show for it, the utterly demoralising job market during which it took 6+ months to get one solid freelance opportunity, and the constant nag that I am w…

I can relate being allergic to day job: I have one and hate the lack of freedom that come with it (in addition to it not being interesting). Doing it has a few expected advantages such as a regular paycheck and healthcare. One unexpected advantage however is how it motivates me to work on my side project so I can change life eventually. On a motivated day I can work as much a full day of work (7h), most of the time I…

Personally I am more of a sprinter, and currently my target is 4-5 hours of max intensity work in the morning, with free afternoons, 6 or 7 days a week. No distractions, no social media, no people around, avoiding browsing the internet for fun from waking up to 1pm.

Free afternoons feel like every day is a holiday that can be filled with whatever I fancy, though sometimes morning work motivates me so much I might do more work in the afternoon. I might need to pace myself, like that Hemingway quote in TFA.

It is incredible how productive one can be with just 20h of consistent work a week, with no bosses or bullshit meetings. I'm still working on the consistency part :)

Re: How I stay motivated as a solo creator

#87

Post by PH95VuimJjqBqy »

michaelteter wrote: post #62
gagege wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can have discipline, if I'm doing something for a purpose. Losing weight, getting a job, etc. My problem I always lose what the purpose of my solo project is. Or, I shoot so many holes in my own idea that I can't imagine it being useful to anyone.

So get an accountability "partner" - perhaps another person who is doing their own thing and having the same challenges you're having. Or do the public progress showmanship thing (recurring blog or vlog posts about your project and the current status). I admire the people that go this route, but it frankly scares me since we're talking here on a forum of talented people, some of whom could just hear the project idea…

Does that stuff actually work for some people?

My issue is that I don't give a shit about other people outside of those I care about. imo the whole coach thing is a cottage industry of bullshit artists.

If Linus Torvalds wanted to give me advice/coach me I'd damn well listen, even if I disagreed with it (and I'd question if I'm right because Linus is that good).

But the random joe blow whose entire career is coaching? I just have no respect for it.

Re: How I stay motivated as a solo creator

#88

Post by sibit »

gagege wrote: post #19
whartung wrote: post #2

First, I'm easily distracted. But, the real issue in working on something, for myself, that is engaging, and pushing back the "WTH are you wasting time on this for?". It's all very fleeting. It's not like I have some other burning passion to work on instead, some "if you do this you'll make lots of money instead of those toys you make thing". I don't. But, especially being older, it can be a trick at times to perseve…

I have the same problem. I see all these hackers out there making (something like) the millionth travel blog and sticking with it for years and somehow ending up making a decent income off of it. But I'm sitting here wondering if my potentially cool game idea that has never been done before is something that the world really needs, then I quit after about a week because of those thoughts. What drives people?

> What drives people?

I've worked on [side/pet/hobby] projects consistently for the last 6 years. What drives me is my friends. One of the latest projects I've started to work on is a free alternative to a mobile app called UDisc. They hit us with the ol' switcheroo by offering the service for free for several years and now force you to pay if you want to maintain your previous disc golf rounds (beyond 10 rounds).

I've tried to build things only I want and I usually lose steam or interest. For me, building things for, and with, other people keeps me motivated.

Re: How I stay motivated as a solo creator

#90

Post by bjornsing »

svnt wrote: post #53
rfrey wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's unclear to me precisely what your definition of creator is, but it seems like one nobody else shares. It has to be something made without constraints? Or something that can be effortlessly reproduced later? Or something that is 100% non-derivative? Do you really believe the songs you write on the guitar are non derivative?

It seems parent’s difference is work-for-hire with a business function and defined deliverable is not creator work. Where do you think the line is? It seems obvious to me that an artist is a creator. If a person is stitching together Wordpress sites for someone else’s content are they a creator? A configurator? If a person is creating excel spreadsheets are they a creator? What about if they are just tallying numbers…

“A configurator”, that’s a great title! When I’m clicking around in the AWS console that’s exactly what I feel like: a configurator.

BTW, I hate it.

Post reply on HN