31–40 of 241 posts
Someday I'll retire and then I can get some real work done.
So, this article is really timely. Thanks.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nuanced and valuable feedback, that I receive. Thank you! I think your edit was basically going to be my reply, haha. It is hard to address every side of every potential topic in an article. I actually needed help softening the tone to end up with the final version you're reading today. I'm empathetic by nature so it's easy for me to write with empathy, but I'm still prone to generalizing my personal experiences!
> You have a duty to your past self to release the project. It’s a way to honor your work and sacrifice. All the time spent on the project is time you could have spent on something else. That time was not without cost. Ouch! I strongly encourage you to read up and understand the sunk cost fallacy. In general, do not let past efforts be the guide for future decisions. I've quit a lot of projects in my life. And it was…
I hear your feedback, but I don't fully agree with all of it. I do understand the sunk cost fallacy quite well, but thinking about the time committed can be a useful framing to help push past the fear of releasing or drudgery of the last 10%.
> If you tell yourself that every time you don't release a project, the fix is not to release the project, but to stop telling yourself these lies.
I mean, if you never ship you're literally the kind of person who doesn't ship though. You can tell yourself whatever you want, but eventually you'll stop believing yourself because you know it's not true!
Perhaps you'll enjoy my other piece more: Publishing your work increases your luck (https://github.com/readme/guides/publishing-your-work)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nuanced and valuable feedback, that I receive. Thank you! I think your edit was basically going to be my reply, haha. It is hard to address every side of every potential topic in an article. I actually needed help softening the tone to end up with the final version you're reading today. I'm empathetic by nature so it's easy for me to write with empathy, but I'm still prone to generalizing my personal experiences!
> You have a duty to your past self to release the project. It’s a way to honor your work and sacrifice. All the time spent on the project is time you could have spent on something else. That time was not without cost. Ouch! I strongly encourage you to read up and understand the sunk cost fallacy. In general, do not let past efforts be the guide for future decisions. I've quit a lot of projects in my life. And it was…
I will likewise critique your critique:
Instead of creating a new thread you post directly to the author who responded to an unrelated message. Since the author is obviously responding to criticisms, why did you feel the need to expand a thread with a non-related article quotation you took issue with rather than start your own? It seems to me you wanted to ensure that the author read what you wrote because you felt it was particularly important for him to see it. I don't agree.
The article is about finishing projects instead of starting new ones -- it is not about when to cut losses. The two topics may seem related but I argue that they are not.
The type of person to leave an unfinished project on the table because it isn't 'good enough' is the person for whom the author is writing. It is not the type of person who can't let a project go despite the damage that project is causing to other things or despite the project being a lost cause.
Example:
The person who makes a bet 'if I risk X in exchange for A% of success happening and I lose, I can live with that, but I couldn't live with not trying' is not the person who makes a bet 'I lost X, which I couldn't afford to lose, but if I risk everything I have left or go into debt, then I can make back what I lost and be whole again'. One is an entrepreneur and the other is a gambling addict. The same type of difference exists in the two cases you present.
Your final sentence seems to be a half-assed acknowledgment that you found value in the work, but you are unable to give praise so the complements you use are negated put-downs (not bad, despite complaints, is not meritless). I think that this form of praise is worthless and makes you look petty. Stop doing it.
- "Here's What's Preventing You From Finishing Projects": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1j93RnIxEo - "How to Finish Your Weekend Projects in One Weekend": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72a85tWOJVY
"Finishing" more projects (even if that means changing the scope and announcing it "finished") has been amazing for my internal willingness to start new projects or tell friends about them. I have much less anxiety that I'll leave another half-finished project sitting around with lost motivation.
> Sometimes finishing is just the beginning: You release the library, the package, the SaaS product, and your work is really just beginning. Users have issues, customers have feedback, and dependencies need upgrading. In some sense, there is no finished software; there is only released software. Translation: "Please get locked in to using GitHub"
Ha. I don't work for GitHub tho! I'm just a guy writing about my feelings
3 years later, I realised it was a fundamentally flawed idea. 6 years later, now, I'm still working on it, despite knowing that. Very recently, for the first time in that 6 years, I've been successful at pulling myself away onto other projects, but that main one still sits there and I will get back to it, whether I want to or not.
All thats not to say that finishing things isn't important, just that it can go both ways. Sadly I don't have any advice to stop others from falling into the same trap as I did other than maybe being aware of that.
EDIT: To be clear, this isn't a "just ship it" situation. I don't have anything to ship other than mismatched ill-formed prototypes, and I do mean prototypes. Maybe one day I'll just polish up one of those prototypes and ship it, that's been my thought process lately