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Finish your projects

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Re: Finish your projects

#61

Post by johnwheeler »

aarondf wrote: post #14
interroboink wrote: post #11

In general, I like the empathetic tone of the article, and I appreciate that it addresses an emotional facet of software development. But nevertheless it triggers some little part of me w/regard to telling people what they should or should not do, or what they may be proud of. I worry for someone who reads "You also have a duty to your future self to release the project" and "...you tell yourself that you are the kin…

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!

IMO, your post is spot on. Grinding out the last 10% of the boring details while fear starts creeping in and new ideas surface to distract you is exactly what I’ve felt.

You’ve codified this in a way that I feel like I can begin to manage it better. Really great post. I’ll incorporate this one into my life going forward.

Re: Finish your projects

#62

Post by shit_game »

As "inspirational" as this comes across, I can't help but feel a bit cynical in that this is _Github_ publishing this. You know, the company that famously built an AI product using the projects hosted on Github... Personal development and growth and feel-good-iness aside, there is a tremendous conflict of interest present when Github is encouraging its userbase to create working software projects when those software projects constitute a treasure trove of machine learning data that can be monetized (and even more effectively so if they work/are completed).

Re: Finish your projects

#63

Post by slicktux »

shit_game wrote: post #62

As "inspirational" as this comes across, I can't help but feel a bit cynical in that this is _Github_ publishing this. You know, the company that famously built an AI product using the projects hosted on Github... Personal development and growth and feel-good-iness aside, there is a tremendous conflict of interest present when Github is encouraging its userbase to create working software projects when those software…

I agree, very much so, with your reasoning; so much so that I never trusted my code in any online code hosting platform…but never did I imagine it would be used for machine learning!

Re: Finish your projects

#65

Post by [deleted] »

BeetleB wrote: post #58
Eisenstein wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Despite the strong complaints, the article isn't that bad and does have some merits. 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…

> 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 t…

[deleted]

Re: Finish your projects

#66

Post by jahewson »

shit_game wrote: post #62

As "inspirational" as this comes across, I can't help but feel a bit cynical in that this is _Github_ publishing this. You know, the company that famously built an AI product using the projects hosted on Github... Personal development and growth and feel-good-iness aside, there is a tremendous conflict of interest present when Github is encouraging its userbase to create working software projects when those software…

Is this not an alignment of interests?

Re: Finish your projects

#67

Post by codersfocus »

I read a very boring but useful paper on curiosity by Lowenstein.

He frames curiosity as a drive (similar to eg hunger.)

If you’re starting but not finishing projects, maybe it’s due to curiosity about a sub problem that you hack a solution for.

But once your curiosity is satisfied and you have no other drive eg money, stars on Github, you finish without releasing it

Re: Finish your projects

#68

Post by richardw »

interroboink wrote: post #11

In general, I like the empathetic tone of the article, and I appreciate that it addresses an emotional facet of software development. But nevertheless it triggers some little part of me w/regard to telling people what they should or should not do, or what they may be proud of. I worry for someone who reads "You also have a duty to your future self to release the project" and "...you tell yourself that you are the kin…

Aren’t you kinda telling someone how they should write a post? Even though you start writing most sentences with I, it comes off as what they should rather do.

Which, you know, is fine. I would maybe have {insert similar advice here} :)

Actually I do have a contribution, inspired I think by _why. Rather than telling them how to write, just write. I don’t do that enough myself.

On writing, I think strong points often get through better. Challenge people. They’re adults, they can consider if it applies to them or not.

On completion, for those who have difficulty achieving self love, achieving small completed projects is nearer “fake it till you make it”. It’s easier, actions and thoughts and beliefs impact each other. You can start with any of them, but some might find it easier to start with actions.

Re: Finish your projects

#69

Post by aarondf »

johnwheeler wrote: post #61
aarondf wrote: post #14

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!

IMO, your post is spot on. Grinding out the last 10% of the boring details while fear starts creeping in and new ideas surface to distract you is exactly what I’ve felt. You’ve codified this in a way that I feel like I can begin to manage it better. Really great post. I’ll incorporate this one into my life going forward.

Thank you for letting me know, that's encouraging for me to hear. Good luck!

Re: Finish your projects

#70

Post by aarondf »

waboremo wrote: post #59
aarondf wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've lashed myself to the mast (so to speak) and forced myself to finish projects that I would've otherwise walked away from, and I'm so so glad I did. > You can free yourself from this pain without lifting a finger. Sometimes the cost of doing things is pain. I was going to say the cost of doing _great_ things is pain, but honestly, the cost of doing anything is usually some level of pain.

What happened as a result of finishing those projects?

One thing: internal satisfaction. External success, too! The biggest one recently was releasing a course on MySQL at https://planetscale.com/mysql-for-developers. It was painful to push that over the finish line, but giving up on it would have been a huge disservice.
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