Live data from Hacker News

I never finish anyth

greig.cc

41–50 of 107 posts

Re: I never finish anyth

#41
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's just the bit I run through often. My main project (CycleLive) is approaching two years old now, and I've got a small but loyal audience which I'm nurturing. Actually I think CycleLove has a different problem — the "a blog is not a business" one. Although it was never intended to be a business in the first place, I want to angle it in that direction, and that's the part I'm struggling with now.

oh yeah, cool site. yeah perhaps what you and I consider products are in different categories, so perhaps my words are not so relevant to you. I enjoy making geeky technical things, but fail to find any users. :( One day I will sort it out (maybe).

Are you building something that other people actually want? Or something that you think they want?

If the former, how do you know that?

Re: I never finish anyth

#43

I immediately commiserated with this article when I saw the headline, because I have the same problem. I wish the resolution of the blog post was something other than "break the big thing in to little bits and do those" - something that I've known for a long time. For me, the most successful thing I've come across, and coincidentally the hardest part to change, was not being a perfectionist and just getting to MVP. S…

The biggest game-changer for me has been peer pressure, if that helps. I left a talkshop group of friends and started working with people who were getting things done. Changed my life dramatically.

Accountability can be a great thing, agreed.

I used a kind of accountability hack to get a lot of writing done last year — basically by setting a £100 penalty for any day that I didn't write 1,000 words.

Re: I never finish anyth

#44
post #7

It was the same for me for several ideas/projects that i started with. Then i realised what was the reason makes me not touching the project after a while... The first steps are always known and can be done by almost everyone. - Buy the domain - Construct the idea - Even, start coding the project And here comes the reasons why you slowly starting not to touch the project anymore; - You realise that you are not sure h…

>- You realise that you are not sure how to deploy this on production.

>- You realise that you are not sure how to deploy this on production.

>- You realise that you will need a business model and you are just a developer/designer and have no idea about those.

>- Then comes the tax issues, and realisation that you need a company.

>- You don't know how to licence your idea/project

As someone who isn't a very good designer/developer this seems like the easiest part to figure out. Coding the project is the single greatest struggle for me as I just don't have the experience/expertise but it's something I enjoy doing and want to do.

Re: I never finish anyth

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If I worried about "likelihood of not finishing a project" before I started a project, I would never start. First step is to start, if you get there then you can worry about finished or unfinished - either way you will likely have learned something or created something which is more than the worried non-starter can say.

Re: I never finish anyth

#46
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…

Personally I think realizing you need to engage your will and discipline yourself into working hard when you don't want to is the easy part. The really really hard part is actually doing it. How do you find will where there is none? How do you motivate yourself when you feel unmotivated about everything? When you feel stuck in the rat race, stuck in the routine of monotony? How can I restore the drive and motivation in myself that I never remember having in the first place? Is it even possible?

These are the things I am struggling with and they make fighting it a non-starter.

Re: I never finish anyth

#47
I read somewhere recently that if you fantasize/talk about your ideas/goals it triggers your brain to let you feel a similar satisfaction for actually accomplishing the said idea/goal. Of course now I can't find the article so take it with a grain of salt.

I did find this article which is related…

http://blog.bufferapp.com/how-our-brains-stop-us-achieving-o...

Re: I never finish anyth

#48

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'…

The thing that helps me work through this is to be very aggressive about a small list of features for "version 1". Focus on getting version 1 online and working, and put all your shiny ideas on the TODO list for version 2. Once version 1 is out the door, the momentum of people using it will carry you forward. I've learned the hard way that for me, by far the biggest risk in a side project is me losing interest before…

I find that working even on version 1 stops me from doing the actual work, which is to find users and actually verify I am solving a useful problem.

Maybe it is good that we cannot finish all these projects, since they have no use anyway...

Re: I never finish anyth

#49
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…

This is the kind of thing that I need to hear.

Thank you.

Re: I never finish anyth

#50

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…

visakanv: thank you for this. this was a comforting read and sat close to home. it leaves me optimistic.

killnine: i hope not to be the bearer of bad news but it seems you've been hellbanned for 2 years. only users with "showdead" can see your comments, and no one can vote on them or respond to them. unfortunate because voting up your comment would have prevented me from leaving my own. :)

Post reply on HN