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There are too many shiny objects and it is killing me

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Re: There are too many shiny objects and it is killing me

#131

Post by ffn »

In stark contrasting irony, the "things" people need and will pay for have barely changed since the days of Aristotle. We pay money for:

1. Food and shelter (death-prevention in general) 2. Social status / acceptance 3. More money (or resources in general) 4. The hope of the above 3 5. Arbitrary / weird stuff like altruism, entertainment, and other self-actualizing junk like discovering "meaning"

Human-centric design is focused on maximizing some or all of the above 5 points and generally leads to a successful small business. Meanwhile, engineering-centric design is focused on optimizing "obscure" things like load-time, memory-allocation-efficiency, code-understandability, engagement rate, click-through, or even profit. And while it can lead to success, it is nevertheless something of a red-herring to folks in the creative fields.

Re: There are too many shiny objects and it is killing me

#132

Post by groby_b »

drawkbox wrote: post #45

You aren't able to get out of the sketchbook or notes in your over-architecting phase. It is normal. It is a typical developer arc. You are probably around 4-8 years in. - The first 2-3 years are focused, prototype like, just happy it is working phase. Piles of crap code here and a few successes. Underplanning is the key problem with a focus on proving you can do it. - The second phase it the overly architected phase…

Huh. And here I am, having spent 25+ years doing this, and new things still attract me. I've learned to watch this behavior (mostly - I'm here commenting, aren't I? ;). But I have not yet reached a stage of "balance".

Granted, the shinier things are more high-level this time around - but this seems to point to the fact that this is a repeating pattern, not something that you conquer and forever solve.

Re: There are too many shiny objects and it is killing me

#133

Post by empressplay »

The author's just talking about plain-old procrastination, a fear of _actually_ committing to the project (and all the big nasty stuff that it implies) by actually writing that first line of code.

Just write the first line of code. It won't hurt. I promise =)

Re: There are too many shiny objects and it is killing me

#134

Post by derwildemomo »

Sounds all to familiar. I discussed and still discuss this problem with my peers offline a lot, and thought about creating (haha, new project there) a platform where people with this exact problem can pair up and in a way play supervisor for someone else.

The point is that my procrastination immediately stops if i make a commitment to someone else: if i promise a friend to deliver xy, I do. Social pressure seems to be working for me better than the will to suceed.

so, a platform where you can define your goals and have someone else check on your goals regularly, asking why it didn't work – while you do the exact same thing for the other person. while it's nice project wise, it could also provide helpful advice for whatever it is you're building.

just an idea though.

Re: There are too many shiny objects and it is killing me

#135

Post by greenlig »

Steven Pressfield talks about this in The War of Art - http://www.amazon.com/The-War-Art-Through-Creative/dp/193689... - referring to it as "resistance". It's the force that stops you from actually getting stuck into work. It's all the little reasons, distractions, and shiny baubles that stop you from knuckling down and just doing the work.

I've found over years of starting and rarely finishing personal projects, that making a list of three targets for your session (the amount of time you can dedicate, right now, to the project) helps. Start at the top and crunch through it. Don't get caught up with what you should be doing, just get right to the doing. Code now, optimise later. You'll quickly learn how to prioritise tasks, and the act of ticking off a completed item gives you such positive feedback that it becomes the norm.

You are in a good place right now. You are realising the futility of your current method, and you can see the elements that are holding you back. Right now, dedicate that time to three top tasks in your latest idea and crunch through them. Do the work right now, and then look back and review.

Get to it, you have ideas to realise!

Re: There are too many shiny objects and it is killing me

#136

Post by bitwize »

Periodic reality checks. What's my goal -- my real goal? Is what I'm currently doing meaningfully advancing me to that goal? If not, stop that shit. Close the cat video. Put off theme dinking till your coffee break. You have to go back and do this time and time again. Pain in the ass but it's called discipline and it's how humans get shit done.

Re: There are too many shiny objects and it is killing me

#138

Post by datashovel »

Magpies wrote: post #104
datashovel wrote: post #90

When reading the post, I had the impression that OP has never worked on a large project and seen what it's like to iterate on an existing project to improve it incrementally by working on the critical questions that may only make small changes to the overall app / project. Instead they're always thinking about and working on the large decisions (that are more or less inconsequential in the big picture) that you need…

No, that is not the case. I've been a developer for nearly 20 years. I have a number of LOB applications under my belt that took years to develop. I have seen it all, but the last two years it's been a struggle. I agree that it may have to do something with the isolation of freelancing on remote projects via the web, the rapid changes in development as a whole, and information overload.

I definitely agree that there are alot of things out there these days. It's difficult to keep up with those trends. But in my experience solid fundamentals translate well to any "shiny new object". The interfaces are different, and sometimes there's something really innovative about new approaches.

IMO in order to maintain a sanity about it all, you really need to dig into "what is this shiny object really accomplishing". This can help change one's perspective from "I need to learn it all to stay on top of new trends", to the realization that "There are really only a handful of truly innovative things happening behind all the shiny objects".

Re: There are too many shiny objects and it is killing me

#139

Post by alesa »

derwildemomo wrote: post #134

Sounds all to familiar. I discussed and still discuss this problem with my peers offline a lot, and thought about creating (haha, new project there) a platform where people with this exact problem can pair up and in a way play supervisor for someone else. The point is that my procrastination immediately stops if i make a commitment to someone else: if i promise a friend to deliver xy, I do. Social pressure seems to b…

I would be really interested in this!

Re: There are too many shiny objects and it is killing me

#140

Post by swayvil »

javajosh wrote: post #97
chipsy wrote: post #22

Simply put: You're shopping, not creating. I went through a phase like this, too. It also had some relation to being stressed, or not socializing enough, in my case. The healthy thing you want to be doing is practicing. Ground the big idea within the question, "what part of this can I start implementing now?" It doesn't matter how tiny or trivial that part is, as long as it has a clear link to the big project - the m…

>You're shopping, not creating. It's very hard to stop shopping, and if you don't stop, you lose. There's a fantastic SF story that is the perfect allegory (Arthur C. Clarke, Superiority ): http://www.mayofamily.com/RLM/txt_Clarke_Superiority.html EDIT: It angers me that this comment was down-voted. That story was difficult to find, and it really is the perfect allegory to the OP's problem, and the more general "wors…

Good story.

Re anger : Have you met the internet? He is 14 years old and hates everything except tentacle-porn.

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