I used to be the kind of guy who started a lot of things, but never finished them. I got angry at myself, and built a project with the sole goal of finishing it. The challenge of “just get it done” really put me in the right mindset. Since then I’ve started finishing what I started. Here’s some tips.
If you’re going to try a new to you tech, only use 1 new to you thing at a time. There is nothing wrong with using a technology that’s old. In fact, that’s the best way to finish something. Old technology is googleable, stable, and usually has libraries for everything you want to do. New tech might let you do in 3 lines what old tech will do in 20… but getting those 3 lines of code to work might take more time than just writing the extra code. The next point, elegance does not matter. NO ONE cares about your project. They aren’t going to review the code, so why spend time doing something elegantly? Just get it done.
As mentioned in the article, you really have to realize your limits. At work, when you have a large team, the definition of MVP can expand. When it’s just you, you REALLY need to think about what value you’re building. I’m constantly asking myself “is this thing I’m going to spend today on actually going to be the difference between my product being useful and not working at all”. “Is there a way I can get away with faking, or doing this thing manually”. If you only have a few users, you might not need to automate right away.
One more personal preference, I don’t talk about what I’m working on with friends and family until I’m near done or done. For a few reasons, first if you talk to other engineers, they’ll discourage you. When you propose an idea to another engineer, they’re shoot it down pointing out minor flaws. I used to think, oh that’s useful… they’re preventing me from going in the wrong direction. Upon reflection though, I’m not sure the advice I’ve gotten has always been “useful”, it has made me give up on ideas. Maybe I’m weak willed, but this is what I need to see my ideas get done. If you really believe what you’re building will work, the only person worth talking to are your future customers, if your future customer isn’t interested… that’s actually worth something.