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How I stay motivated as a solo creator

herman.bearblog.dev

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Re: How I stay motivated as a solo creator

#71

Post by dragosmocrii »

whartung wrote: post #58
soupfordummies wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s the project? Can you share it here?

https://github.com/willhartung/planet/releases/tag/v1.0.0 It's a "simple" GUI wrapper around a fractal planet generator (that I did not create). I'm not very good at GUIs. I don't have the visual eye, I'm lousy at detail. 99% of the time I'm happy with something that spits out the answer I want awash in a sea of debug logs and printlns. I have a great tolerance to ignoring all of that. I bogged down on the installers…

Congrats! That's a nice project and great effort that I'm sure taught you plenty of stuff while doing it.

Re: How I stay motivated as a solo creator

#72

Post by sph »

dtran wrote: post #12

>Working solo has its difficulties. For one, my income is somewhat tied to my productivity, and my productivity highly correlates to my state of mind. Since going back to being primarily a maker after organizing my days around being a manager[1], and being an avid runner, I've redefined my relationship with "motivation" in a way that can be summed up succinctly by author Brad Stulberg: "You don't need to feel good to…

Good advice. Re: body doubling, I think I would benefit a lot from that, but I hate having a webcam turned on all day with strangers. Or even a microphone. I feel these body doubling apps focus too much on neurodivergent extroverts, and it's a damn shame.

Honestly, if I need strangers around, I'd rather work in a coffee shop, but ideally I just want something no more intrusive than an IRC chat to shoot the shit while the code is compiling.

Still crossing my fingers for body doubling that less intrusive.

Re: How I stay motivated as a solo creator

#73

Post by matheusmoreira »

whartung wrote: post #2

First, I'm easily distracted. But, the real issue in working on something, for myself, that is engaging, and pushing back the "WTH are you wasting time on this for?". It's all very fleeting. It's not like I have some other burning passion to work on instead, some "if you do this you'll make lots of money instead of those toys you make thing". I don't. But, especially being older, it can be a trick at times to perseve…

I know how you feel. Persevering is a real challenge. It takes a huge amount of effort just to start work. It's easier when I get going. After getting something done, there's this feeling of accomplishment but also pointlessness and loneliness. I ask myself why I'm even writing this stuff. Will anyone care?

I suppose I should do a Show HN at some point and find out.

Re: How I stay motivated as a solo creator

#74

Post by ThinkBeat »

To pay the bills, food in the fridge, kids: school, food clothes, organized activite s gas / electric for the car (if you need one) your software subscriptions (if any). Health insurance (if one is needed where you live). Pay taxes

and so on.

Re: How I stay motivated as a solo creator

#75

Post by hermitcrab »

michaelteter wrote: post #61
gagege wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the same problem. I see all these hackers out there making (something like) the millionth travel blog and sticking with it for years and somehow ending up making a decent income off of it. But I'm sitting here wondering if my potentially cool game idea that has never been done before is something that the world really needs, then I quit after about a week because of those thoughts. What drives people?

I think most people do better with a partner or small team. It can still be very much like solo, in that each person really has their own domain of activity and expertise. But unlike solo, you have one or more people to help you stay motivated and on track. Of course it's possible to learn techniques and behavior patterns which can help you be a successful pure-solo creator, but it takes time and persistence (and mot…

Partners come with their own issues, not least having more mouths to feed.

Re: How I stay motivated as a solo creator

#76

Post by hermitcrab »

gavinhoward wrote: post #52
all2 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are your major road blocks to making money right now?

My software isn't done because I'm a perfectionist. :) When it is done (and I've gotten to the point where it's only months away), the roadblock will be my inability to make a sale.

I wrote this for people like you. ;0) https://successfulsoftware.net/2007/08/07/if-you-arent-embar...

Re: How I stay motivated as a solo creator

#77

Post by hermitcrab »

rfrey wrote: post #45
6stringmerc wrote: post #26

I do not approve of the use of the term “creator” here when they may believe they are creating but they are actually working inside a box (machine) or job parameter which inherently is derivative. As in, I can whistle a song I created on the guitar because I pull it out of thin air - can he do the same with his “creation” as it were? Stay in your lane.

It's unclear to me precisely what your definition of creator is, but it seems like one nobody else shares. It has to be something made without constraints? Or something that can be effortlessly reproduced later? Or something that is 100% non-derivative? Do you really believe the songs you write on the guitar are non derivative?

>It has to be something made without constraints?

Everything is built with contraints, where it be physics, processor speed, time, money or something else.

Re: How I stay motivated as a solo creator

#78

Post by raffraffraff »

My wife hit upon something that might be interesting to anyone reading this. I don't think any of the comments here directly put their finger upon it.

Some possibly unimportant background: my wife used to suffer from depression, but in the last 10 years that has subsided, mostly through self-guided philosophy and practical stuff. What remains is social anxiety and a life-long history of avoiding working for/with people. For reasons I won't go into she has a huge problem with authority figures, so early jobs with unfair or idiotic bosses lasted a "tableflip" amount of time. She's run a solo business for most of her adult life "to avoid dealing with people". The double-irony is:

1. There's almost no such thing as "working alone". A successful business requires interaction, and if you're solo, you need to do all of it.

2. She realized that without having to do something for someone she has zero motivation to do anything at all even though she loves what she actually does.

Without a client she thinks "why bother?". As soon as a client contacts her, off she goes like a bee. And even though she consciously realizes this, she has never found a way to trick her brain into doing work for herself. Sometimes I feel like faking a client just so she can work, because once she's going, her work is amazing and she loves what she does. She's even done free/low cost work for cash-strapped clients just so that she can work.

So what I'm saying is that she needs her work to matter to someone specific, but it doesn't matter who.

I thought she was nuts, but after 20+ years of working for various companies I took a 6 month break from work. I had all sorts of plans for things I'd hack on. I finished nothing, except for the raspberry pi arcade cabinet for my nephews.

We all know that startups need to get their product into customer hands. We think that the client's excellent feedback will knock the product into shape. But I think it might just be the fact that you have a customer who needs you to deliver. Having worked for a few early stages startups that had no clients yet, this effect is visible.

Re: How I stay motivated as a solo creator

#79

Post by marginalia_nu »

ThinkBeat wrote: post #74

To pay the bills, food in the fridge, kids: school, food clothes, organized activite s gas / electric for the car (if you need one) your software subscriptions (if any). Health insurance (if one is needed where you live). Pay taxes and so on.

I think this makes more sense as a wagie. If you're doing solo work, it's fairly often you make huge lumps of money, and then nothing for months on end; or you're making money passively through existing accounts that use a service you're running that doesn't require much daily upkeep, etc.

There is not such a clear relationship between putting in work and making money in the same way showing up at a job has. The effect of slacking off may not manifest until a year later when you didn't land a new client or didn't get an investment.

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