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I never finish anyth

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Re: I never finish anyth

#31

Post by delinka »

I have a similar process to the author, but I get further. Must have a name! Is it available everywhere? Once I've settled some of that detail, it's on to the code with the basic features.

I'll need a database (and thus a schema), and a REST API, and security considerations ... that's all fine. Start actually writing and testing and OH BOY another feature idea! Write it down for later, continue back where I was. But that new feature will require this change to the current design. And to do that now I have to change this other part and ... repeat until I give up.

tl;dr: feature creep kills me, even with my own ideas. I cannot just Let It Be and produce a 1.0 with minimal features.

Re: I never finish anyth

#32

Post by jlees »

kadabra9 wrote: post #14

You wanna know the saddest part of my day? When I'm moving around my laptop, and pop into the "projects" folder and see what a graveyard it has become. Dozens of half baked projects that seemed brilliant at the time, that I either lost interest in, decided the concept was too difficult, or (and this is the worst one) let my self doubt convince me that it would never work. The really sad part is, every now and then I'…

I find my side projects can be quite cyclical in nature. I'll have a better idea, or one that has more immediate unsolved problems, and maybe start thinking about that instead. But a week or two later, something will trigger the older idea back to the forefront of my memory, and I'll get excited about it again.

Nobody's forcing you to work on, or finish, a specific project. But if you are always starting new ones and never finishing anything, you have to identify why you don't care about something that seemed like a good idea when you first had it. Did you disprove some of the assumptions? Too lazy to knuckle down and code? Too scared of marketing it and putting your name to it? Not enough time? Prefer sketching wireframes? I've learnt a fair bit about myself from introspection here, especially when I consider the projects I do finish. Often, something I really want to just exist, right now, and without much of the baggage that's around the MVP-prove-iterate-market-blog-build cycle.

Re: I never finish anyth

#34

Post by marcosdumay »

nelmaven wrote: post #25
visakanv wrote: post #11

I relate to this, too. Here's some stuff that I read recently that helped me a little: "When you are young, beginning new projects is easy and finishing them is hard. As you grow older, beginnings get harder, but finishing gets easier. At least, that has been my experience. I think it is true of anyone of at least average intelligence, creativity and emotional resilience. The reason is simple. When you are young, the…

I guess that in your life you have to leave some unfinished projects behind to be able to finish others.

The ideal is not starting the projects you won't finish... But I guess nobody gets there.

Re: I never finish anyth

#35

Post by skriticos2 »

mbrock wrote: post #17

Nobody ever finishes anything. Have you ever heard about a finished project? Linus Torvalds hasn't "finished" Linux yet. But it's certainly out there — it's alive! I don't think "man, I'm so far from being finished." That's just a demotivating way to see your project. The big milestone is having something that's useful enough for people to be interested in, no?

I think the author meant to reach version 1.0 of a project or at least have a fully working prototype.

Most projects die during the creation of the outer scaffolding without much of the envisioned functionality in place.

Re: I never finish anyth

#36

Post by JshWright »

brennanm wrote: post #8

Same way. I'm a 30%'er. I'll do the name, branding, front end mockups... but then I'll lose it. I wont want to dive into the back and write any backend or server code. That's why you need a team. Everyone has optimistic days and pessimistic days. On a good team you all wont have them at exactly the same time. You're team will push you through and help you finish.

To further illustrate the benefit of a team... I'm exactly the opposite. I dive right into the backend stuff... APIs, database schema, etc, and tack just enough UI on the front end to make it usable (Name? Branding? That can all come later...(and never does))

Re: I never finish anyth

#37

Post by Dewie »

Arjuna wrote: post #27

Just some encouragement here for you good people... You have to do the work. There is no one else that can do it for you. It is entirely up to you; actually, it has only ever been you, because it is you that rolls out of bed early to bring it. No one is going to do that for you. If you want to do it, then you will figure out a way to make it happen. Like some of you, I have a family. That makes things a bit challengi…

> Also, let go of "Internet Time." That is to say, we all read HN and see these impressive "Show HN" posts, and submitted stories about the Next Big Thing... and it seems like things are happening so fast, and we think, "Why even try?" Well, the reality is nothing is happening fast. It is an illusion. Most all of these stories have an incredible amount of time and work behind them, so let go of that illusion, get started, and stay focused.

Yeah, I seem to get this false sense of these Show HN all being something that someone whipped up in the weekend, even though the magnitude of implies that that is very, very unlikely. It's like I think that since that they are all so easy to find, and they happen so often, the time that these seeming wizards made them is proportional to how much attention I have put on them, which is clearly erroneous. Looking at the projects they are often years old, maybe even years in the making.

I think I crossed the line of being more demotivated than inspired by those types of posts. I should cut down on this Web-thing.

Re: I never finish anyth

#38

Post by Edmond »

It could have something to do with the reason you wanted to start a project in the first place.

If you start a project just to play with some new shinny framework/tech then it is likely that once the novelty wears off nothing of interest would remain.

If however you start a project because you are excited about some product vision that doesn't already exist or not in the form you've envision then the drive to bring that idea/vision to fruition can be a powerful motivator.

I wrote a blog post on this matter some time back: http://colabopad.blogspot.com/2009/12/on-joys-of-creativity-...

Re: I never finish anyth

#40

Post by marsay »

This article gave me idea for a new project. Yes, it's all clear in my head and I have to start working on it right now and abandon all other projects.

A site where you take responsibility for finishing your project. If you don't, you will pay heavy price. Lets say we will spam your inbox with a thousands of letters that remind you of your promises.

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