I already have a job, my side projects are all about having fun and learning new tricks.
On finishing projects
21–30 of 103 posts
Re: On finishing projects
#22I really disagree that releasing a project publicly is a necessary step to deem something done. I have so many projects in my src/ directory that are (in my mind) finished, but that I will never release to the public. I wrote them for my own education and entertainment, not as things that I think the rest of the world would benefit from. And certainly not as a way to build some kind of (ick) -personal brand- among the open source community, or to give me some sense of accountability (to whom?). I don't need GitHub stars or social media thumbs up or hacker news upvotes to measure the worth of something I made.
Re: On finishing projects
#23I had a teacher once, at a training seminar, that kept repeating the phrase "We need to know what 'done' looks like." "Done" is often a compromise. There's more that can be added, there's still burrs and "rough spots," but we need to declare it ready to go out the door, and be prepared to fully support our release. I've been shipping software for my entire adult life, and have had to embrace this philosophy. Just the…
> "We need to know what 'done' looks like."
As much hate as Agile gets here at HN because of its wrong usage by many people, one thing that Agile recommends is setting up a 'Definition of Done' within your team before even starting your very first sprint.
Re: On finishing projects
#24Reposting an old Reddit comment of mine that I think agrees with much of this article:
I'm in my 40s and for most of my life I had an unending series of unfinished projects that I felt guilty about. Today, I am able to finish some stuff, including some pretty large, hard projects. Better, I don't feel guilty about the stuff I don't finish.
The trick for me is to be deliberate and mindful about why I'm embarking on a particular project.
If it's because I want to feel good by:
* Sharing something with others.
* Accomplishing a difficult, challenging task.
* Proving to myself that I can do something.
* Getting the social cachet of being a creative, productive person. (Maybe this is shallow, but who doesn't like to feel impressive in the eyes of their peers?)
Then the goal of the project is the product it and I focus my attention and discipline on it. I try to have as few of these as possible—like only one at a time—so that my willpower is not diluted.
If it's because I want to feel good by:
* Improving a skill.
* Exploring an unfamiliar domain or learning something new.
* Relaxing by tinkering on something I like.
Then the goal of the project is the process and I don't feel bad about not finishing. The real treasure is all the stuff I learned and did along the way and there is no real destination. I can have as many of these as I want because there's no real failure mode here. They're all recreation.
Once I got more honest and clear with myself about my goals for each project, I started to be able to finish the ones where that mattered and stopped feeling bad about the ones where it doesn't.
Re: On finishing projects
#25I sometimes battle perfectionism for various reasons. Someone pointed out that it can’t be perfect if it isn’t even finished, so why not add “done” to what it means to be “perfect.” Somehow that tweaked my perspective in a helpful way. Edit: on reflection, possibly because it doesn’t imply a compromise of my standards, but actually strengthens them, so I don’t have the feeling of giving up or giving less. Also very m…
I don't plan much, first I set a goal and then break it down into manageable steps. Designs without goals rarely turn out well from my experience.
Re: On finishing projects
#26I resonate strongly with this. I found something pretty simple thats been helping me lately though. I uhh, i just force myself to keep working on it until its done. Grind it out. Work on it especially when i dont want to. Ditch those little relaxing moments for it. Wake up early to find time for it. Its torture. And also therapeutic. I see the incompleteness of my original idea, or plan. I see that the things i decla…
+1 to being selective and ruthlessly deleting time-draining ideas.
I'm not sure I can force myself to keep working, though. Self-imposed deadlines don't help me either. It seems like a willpower problem, like going to the gym.
What's helped me is making projects alongside a small group of fellow programmers. Seems like the author has done something similar with a hackers co-op chat and with Recurse. External accountability is my most successful motivator.
Re: On finishing projects
#27I had a teacher once, at a training seminar, that kept repeating the phrase "We need to know what 'done' looks like." "Done" is often a compromise. There's more that can be added, there's still burrs and "rough spots," but we need to declare it ready to go out the door, and be prepared to fully support our release. I've been shipping software for my entire adult life, and have had to embrace this philosophy. Just the…
> "We need to know what 'done' looks like." As much hate as Agile gets here at HN because of its wrong usage by many people, one thing that Agile recommends is setting up a 'Definition of Done' within your team before even starting your very first sprint.
It’s much older than Agile. The Japanese company I worked for, did that.
They would start at the end, and work backwards.
They hated Agile.
Re: On finishing projects
#28I genuinely consider two of my greatest accomplishments to be building a game and composing a song. Neither are very impressive, but in both cases, I ended up having to simply decide I was done and stop working on them. I could continue making changes indefinitely, adding little improvements and such every day, but they were also complete as they were. Once I learned to be okay with that and move on, I learned what f…
Can you post game link ?
Re: On finishing projects
#29I recently saw this related article[0] on the HN frontpage and I've already been applying it.
TL;DR: To build more quickly, do "outline speedrunning": Recursively outline an MVP, speedrun filling it in, and only then go back and perfect.
[0]: with me: https://learnhowtolearn.org/how-to-build-extremely-quickly/
Re: On finishing projects
#30[dead]