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Always a starter, never a finisher.

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Re: Always a starter, never a finisher.

#41

Post by loopdoend »

nchlswu wrote: post #30
trotsky wrote: post #26

Consider looking into the symptoms and characteristics of adult ADHD, especially if you ever had episodes of hyperactivity as a child. It's probably not what's going on, but frequently switching jobs (projects) can be a flag. 9 out of 10 adults with it are undiagnosed, and treatment is very effective.

Do you think you could provide some links or references? When I read your comment, I immediately thing of overdiagnosing condition these days. I only ask because I Think a lot of people in my generation (I guess that's Gen Y?) jump to the "ADHD" or genuinely think they have something wrong with them, when they are completely normal.

Having lots of unfinished projects is common with people with ADHD. We tend to get over the initial excitement of starting something new and lose interest. In order to be actually diagnosed with ADHD you would have to be affected in other ways that seriously impact your life, but this is one "trait cluster" that a lot of people with ADHD share.

http://add-adhd.lifetips.com/tip/81525/adult-add-adhd/adult-...

Re: Always a starter, never a finisher.

#42

Post by trotsky »

nchlswu wrote: post #30
trotsky wrote: post #26

Consider looking into the symptoms and characteristics of adult ADHD, especially if you ever had episodes of hyperactivity as a child. It's probably not what's going on, but frequently switching jobs (projects) can be a flag. 9 out of 10 adults with it are undiagnosed, and treatment is very effective.

Do you think you could provide some links or references? When I read your comment, I immediately thing of overdiagnosing condition these days. I only ask because I Think a lot of people in my generation (I guess that's Gen Y?) jump to the "ADHD" or genuinely think they have something wrong with them, when they are completely normal.

I assume you are looking for a citation for the 9 in 10: http://mbldownloads.com/1108PP_Weisler.pdf

I made a mistake in that it says 9 in 10 go untreated not undiagnosed, though certainly the majority of those untreated are also undiagnosed.

Personally, I'd question why you're willing to challenge a psychiatric disorder like that when you'd never be willing to challenge someone that said "wow, sounds like you might have slipped a disc, you should get that checked out". While undoubtedly there are instances of mistaken diagnosis with ADHD, many objections to the diagnosis have more to do with the viewers confusion between symptoms and moral character.

Re: Always a starter, never a finisher.

#43

Post by tedmiston »

vectorpush wrote: post #35

As is probably common for most HNers, technically feasible ideas pop into my head daily. My mind leisurely constructs state and class diagrams while I'm taking a shower, by the time I dry off, my gameified crowdsourcing quant-bot seems like the most amazing idea ever. But what about my MMO and a dozen other half formed projects each with their own litter of bastard experimental branches? I was able to end this cycle…

Complete isolation worries me that the idea may not get validated in the first place, and you may waste all that time as a result.

Re: Always a starter, never a finisher.

#44

Post by _delirium »

It's somehow interesting to me how often this comes up on HN. It's also a problem I tend to have. But if you had asked me 10 years ago based on what I'd casually heard outside of tech, it was much more common for me to encounter and worry about the exact opposite failure case in creative projects: not the person who has 30 half-finished novels, but the person who's spent 30 years writing their Masterpiece Novel that is probably not going to be a masterpiece, but nobody can convince them that they really should be trying out other things instead of sticking with this one project to the bitter end. Basically, not enough experimentation and bouncing around between projects, and too much unwavering fixation on one Big Project that they've tied their ego to.

Curious what the distribution of those two opposite problems is like! Among creative types, it seems that the "stuck with it too long" problem is more prevalent in certain areas, like writing or filmmaking, but not as prevalent among hackers. I suppose one compensation for it being so common for hackers to fall into the "100 unfinished projects" trap is that it's less common to find hackers who fall into the trap of, "I stuck with the first idea I ever got for 20 years because I thought it was my One Big Idea".

Re: Always a starter, never a finisher.

#46

Post by cletus »

peteforde wrote: post #15

My father is an engineer, and he always taught me that there's no such thing as a good job half completed. The problem with his perspective is that it is uni-dimensional, and with good reason: if you half-build a bridge, people are going to be sad. He's an engineer and he's got to finish the bridge. However, my father didn't decide that a bridge was required, nor did he choose the ideal location for the bridge based…

> What I learned when I came of age was that I am a Starter.

The more accurate way to put this is "I am not a Finisher". The argument here is that starting and finishing are two equally valuable skills that are somehow equivalent.

A "Starter" is a fairweather friend. It's easy to start things. Most people like starting things. Note this is different from networking and so forth, which is really a separate skill altogether.

Employers, business partners and investors will look at what you've finished and don't care what you've started. When something is 80% done or when times are tough or it's time to soldier on and run the last mile of the marathon, nobody wants the guy around who says "well, I started, that's my skill but I'm done now, I suggest you find a Finisher".

Not being a Finisher isn't a different skill--it's a character flaw.

Re: Always a starter, never a finisher.

#47

Post by vectorpush »

tedmiston wrote: post #43
vectorpush wrote: post #35

As is probably common for most HNers, technically feasible ideas pop into my head daily. My mind leisurely constructs state and class diagrams while I'm taking a shower, by the time I dry off, my gameified crowdsourcing quant-bot seems like the most amazing idea ever. But what about my MMO and a dozen other half formed projects each with their own litter of bastard experimental branches? I was able to end this cycle…

Complete isolation worries me that the idea may not get validated in the first place, and you may waste all that time as a result.

Your idea has already achieved validation from you, short of that your work validates itself by existing in a functional state.

Besides, nobody knows what people want. Who would have guessed that the world needed another site to post and comment on photos? Would you validate that idea? Yet Pinterest thrives. Just do it, then tell people.

Re: Always a starter, never a finisher.

#49

Post by jakejake »

In my experience starters are the norm and finishers are less common. I personally am a finisher, it drives me insane to leave a project incomplete. People who are "starters" I find tend to view themselves more as idea people who are maybe not great at execution - and that is true sometimes. But there is a fine line between a starter who is a creative genius -vs- a starter who is lazy and dumps all the annoying finishing tasks onto somebody else's plate. There are also starters who organize things so that it's easy to finish them, and there are starters who leave gigantic messes and problems with no consideration about the finish work necessary.

I have a great partner in music who is very creative but has trouble finishing things. The two of us make a great team. But, there will be times where I get mad and make him do some finish work. Just because I like finishing things doesn't mean I never have any creative ideas and want to do all the boring, dull cleanup work all the time!

Re: Always a starter, never a finisher.

#50

Post by helen842000 »

I have serious issues with the number of projects I've started and not finished (so much so, I named my blog after this type of thinking!)

It's important to think of some projects as pure experiments. That their intentional end result was always going to be the information that you learned. Which does feel 'unfinished', don't be hard on yourself for trying & learning through experiments.

Unfinished projects that are far from the real end state you had in mind, need to be addressed. If you often find yourself generally falling out of love with a project after a few weeks work there will be a reason why. It's usually that you a frustrated that you can't achieve the next objective on your own. Note down the obstacle you are facing and what it would take to resolve it. You can keep in mind what's needed, actively work towards it over time instead of feeling bad about it.

We are so often reminded that time is limited that we are conditioned to thinking that we need to build & complete things rapidly and that if we don't, it's a failure.

It's not always possible to just keep pushing forward. You often need things to happen outside of your control. Allow your projects time to wait for what's needed & for situations to change. Revisit them regularly & know what the next step looks like.

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