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On finishing projects

alexreichert.com

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Re: On finishing projects

#61

Post by wonger_ »

8n4vidtmkvmk wrote: post #43
wonger_ wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+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 accounta…

Where do you find these fellow programmers? Are they working on the project with you, or their own things? I work with oodles of software developers and almost none of them program on the side.

Yeah, finding them is difficult. Lots of Internet wandering. Mainly finding links through people's blogs.

I found this group recently: https://lmt2.com/

The author made a group: https://www.hackercoop.dev/

If you like fiddling with HTML, there's groups like the homebrew website club https://indieweb.org/Homebrew_Website_Club or sunday sites https://sundaysites.cafe/.

A few open-source communities have forums/channels like #showcase, where it's easy to drop a screenshot and get feedback. I'm thinking of the Discord chats for Textual and p5.js, for example, if your project uses their libraries.

Or if you're the party planning type, perhaps consider forming your own group. Even ~6 people meeting once a week for a month works well.

Everyone works on their own things.

Re: On finishing projects

#62

Post by Philpax »

a-french-anon wrote: post #60
halfcat wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ”i just force myself to keep working on it until its done.” I’ll admit I’m jealous of this. Most days at 5pm I’m just hitting a groove, but kids need to eat, need family time, etc. I’d love to grind from 8am-11pm but rarely have that luxury.

I don't want to be too abrasive, but family people unironically complaining (almost humble-bragging in some cases) about their lack of time to others who may or may not have had the same opportunities on that front (e.g. no marriage prospect, possibly loveless life) can be very tiring. tl;dr TRIGGERED

Please get therapy.

Re: On finishing projects

#63

Post by bartonfink »

a-french-anon wrote: post #60
halfcat wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ”i just force myself to keep working on it until its done.” I’ll admit I’m jealous of this. Most days at 5pm I’m just hitting a groove, but kids need to eat, need family time, etc. I’d love to grind from 8am-11pm but rarely have that luxury.

I don't want to be too abrasive, but family people unironically complaining (almost humble-bragging in some cases) about their lack of time to others who may or may not have had the same opportunities on that front (e.g. no marriage prospect, possibly loveless life) can be very tiring. tl;dr TRIGGERED

I don't want to be too abrasive, but people without families or hobbies tend to fuck up work life balance for the rest of us. It's very tiring dealing with people like you who do nothing but work and bitch about how they don't have anything else going on.

Re: On finishing projects

#64

Post by ziofill »

I have an endless streak of unfinished projects, at various stages of completion. All the ones that I finished had something in common: they served a purpose I cared about. If you don’t really care about what a project can do for you it’s nearly impossible to muster the mental energy to carry it out to completion. At least, I can’t.

Re: On finishing projects

#65

Post by mandeepj »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #27
mandeepj wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "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.

> It’s much older than Agile. The Japanese company I worked for, did that.

How old? The origin of Agile goes back to the 1950s in Japan

Re: On finishing projects

#66

Post by [deleted] »

mandeepj wrote: post #23
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #4

I 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.

[deleted]

Re: On finishing projects

#67

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

mandeepj wrote: post #65
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> It’s much older than Agile. The Japanese company I worked for, did that. How old? The origin of Agile goes back to the 1950s in Japan

Yeah, the Toyota JiT stuff, but the company I worked for is a 100+-year-old engineering corporation, and didn't do stuff in no new-fangled, 1950s-kid-playground way.

But the term "Agile," is a lot more recent (and US-based). I rapidly learned never to use that word within earshot of my managers. Sort of like saying "California Roll" in a traditional Tokyo sushi joint.

Re: On finishing projects

#68

Post by randomdata »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #67
mandeepj wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s much older than Agile. The Japanese company I worked for, did that. How old? The origin of Agile goes back to the 1950s in Japan

Yeah, the Toyota JiT stuff, but the company I worked for is a 100+-year-old engineering corporation, and didn't do stuff in no new-fangled, 1950s-kid-playground way. But the term "Agile," is a lot more recent (and US-based). I rapidly learned never to use that word within earshot of my managers. Sort of like saying "California Roll" in a traditional Tokyo sushi joint.

> I rapidly learned never to use that word within earshot of my managers.

Stands to reason. Agile, in the Manifesto sense, defines the considerations to consider should managers be eliminated from the picture. Nobody is going to be comfortable knowing that their job is on the chopping block.

Re: On finishing projects

#69

Post by randomdata »

mandeepj wrote: post #23
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #4

I 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.

Agile says nothing about defining what is done.

Scrum uses the exact "Definition of Done" language, though. I suspect that you are really thinking of it...

Which is humorous given what you said about wrong usage of Agile. Case in point?

Re: On finishing projects

#70

Post by randomdata »

mandeepj wrote: post #65
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> It’s much older than Agile. The Japanese company I worked for, did that. How old? The origin of Agile goes back to the 1950s in Japan

Agile is from 2001. What you seem to be thinking of is the Toyota Production System. It is quite possible that TPS inspired Agile, but to claim that it is Agile is like saying that GPT is from the 1960s (because it shares some resemblance to Eliza).
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