A never-ending project is called "program".
Lessons from a never-ending personal project
41–50 of 80 posts
Re: Lessons from a never-ending personal project
#42Nice article with interesting thoughts and I appreciate the quotes - but I respectfully disagree that 'finishing a personal project you’re doing just for yourself is impossible' I think it's really important to first reflect on the purpose when doing something: is it to solve a problem, is it to learn something, is it to achieve a target, is it to keep yourself busy to wind down and because you like doing it, or is i…
> is it to solve a problem, is it to learn something, is it to achieve a target, is it to keep yourself busy to wind down and because you like doing it, or is it to promote yourself.
Is it because you feel the need to keep yourself busy, but too lazy to plan what you're trying to achieve.
Re: Lessons from a never-ending personal project
#43"The poet Paul Valéry once said that poems are only abandoned, never finished. I’m realizing that every project has a point where the creator, no matter how unsatisfied, has to stop iterating and decide to put what they’ve made out into the world. And it’s always a compromise, because they know every little flaw about the thing they’re making"
So true. At some point you stop working on it and start using it. When you start using it and stop modifying it, you start learning the actual characteristics of the thing. Only then will you find what you like about it and what not. Generally, as user or consumer, you will tend to adapt to the shortcoming and try to maximize the use or enjoyment you get out of it.
In addition, whilst working on something, it can be so hard to predict when quality goals will be met, because the incremental progress slows down constantly as the product grows (non-linear). The reliability and quality of a thing are often only known after using or consuming the thing for some time. Only through actually using and consuming, true evaluation is performed. Only in retrospect can one say anything about the quality of something.
Re: Lessons from a never-ending personal project
#44My little programming project has been all about the data model, and a ton of fun. But I don't enjoy UX work at all. So if I can get it to a "mud fence" level of usability, I'll need people with a shred of aesthetic sensibility, since I'm done around vi with the UI.
Maybe you are using a terrible technology for your UX work, or you are going at it wrong? As with any kind of engineering: less is more. Think about how simple some of the CLI interfaces are to tools like make or grep. And then there are countless examples of ultra simple graphical UX. If you can pay someone to do it, fine. But if you have to do it yourself, make sure it does not make you misable :)
Re: Lessons from a never-ending personal project
#45Nice article with interesting thoughts and I appreciate the quotes - but I respectfully disagree that 'finishing a personal project you’re doing just for yourself is impossible' I think it's really important to first reflect on the purpose when doing something: is it to solve a problem, is it to learn something, is it to achieve a target, is it to keep yourself busy to wind down and because you like doing it, or is i…
Completely agree.
I sew clothes. The vast majority of projects I start get finished. Sometimes I'm happy with the result, sometimes I'm not. I wear them regardless. My kids wear them. After a while they grow out of them.
Goal achieved, project finished.
Re: Lessons from a never-ending personal project
#46Nice article with interesting thoughts and I appreciate the quotes - but I respectfully disagree that 'finishing a personal project you’re doing just for yourself is impossible' I think it's really important to first reflect on the purpose when doing something: is it to solve a problem, is it to learn something, is it to achieve a target, is it to keep yourself busy to wind down and because you like doing it, or is i…
Yeah, finishing personal projects is not impossible. I'm slowly building a set of tools for myself, and the servers I manage, and they're going well.
One of them can be considered finished, the other one is almost done. The first one may get improved, but that's a later exercise.
Re: Lessons from a never-ending personal project
#47Nice article with interesting thoughts and I appreciate the quotes - but I respectfully disagree that 'finishing a personal project you’re doing just for yourself is impossible' I think it's really important to first reflect on the purpose when doing something: is it to solve a problem, is it to learn something, is it to achieve a target, is it to keep yourself busy to wind down and because you like doing it, or is i…
Completely agree. I sew clothes. The vast majority of projects I start get finished. Sometimes I'm happy with the result, sometimes I'm not. I wear them regardless. My kids wear them. After a while they grow out of them. Goal achieved, project finished.
Nice, congrats to your successful projects :)
Good point about being happy with the results! I think this could be added to the definition of success.
Some results can not be improved, like sewed clothes, but there can be a review to learn something (why are you not happy with the result?) and a feedback loop, for the next project to turn out better.
Re: Lessons from a never-ending personal project
#48Nice article with interesting thoughts and I appreciate the quotes - but I respectfully disagree that 'finishing a personal project you’re doing just for yourself is impossible' I think it's really important to first reflect on the purpose when doing something: is it to solve a problem, is it to learn something, is it to achieve a target, is it to keep yourself busy to wind down and because you like doing it, or is i…
Yeah, finishing personal projects is not impossible. I'm slowly building a set of tools for myself, and the servers I manage, and they're going well. One of them can be considered finished, the other one is almost done. The first one may get improved, but that's a later exercise.
Cool that you are seeing your progress!
Improvements are an important aspect. They are simply changes to goals and the scope.
In terms of finishing projects, it is crucial to define them and possibly define milestones in advance.
Re: Lessons from a never-ending personal project
#49> Finishing anything is a miracle in and of itself. A huge shoutout to anyone who’s ever done anything to completion at all. He is writing about art (creative writing), as opposed to commercial product. Art is fairly inward-focused, and its goals can be a lot “fuzzier” than product. I was an artist, in my Yute. At one time, I wanted to actually make a living from it. But artists finish, all the time. Some, treat thei…
I think people could be more clear in their language here.
Finishing a project is not the same thing as finishing the artifact the project is about.
A project to build a house can be completed so that you can sell the house. But someone buys it and continues to build on the house, so the house was not finished.
This applies not only to art I think. It’s a bit of a semantic discussion though, because I guess completing projects is the important bit. You cannot have too many things as work in progress.
Re: Lessons from a never-ending personal project
#50Nice article with interesting thoughts and I appreciate the quotes - but I respectfully disagree that 'finishing a personal project you’re doing just for yourself is impossible' I think it's really important to first reflect on the purpose when doing something: is it to solve a problem, is it to learn something, is it to achieve a target, is it to keep yourself busy to wind down and because you like doing it, or is i…
> is it to solve a problem, is it to learn something, is it to achieve a target, is it to keep yourself busy to wind down and because you like doing it, or is it to promote yourself. Is it because you feel the need to keep yourself busy, but too lazy to plan what you're trying to achieve.
Not sure what you mean with your comment, but 'keeping yourself busy' should not be confused with procrastinate or simply passing time. Procrastination, passing time, doing nothing, and feeling bored should also deserve time on its own.
However, I would not call them projects.
Anyway, there may be a feeling of burning on, or burning out, when private projects start to feel like a todo list...