Ask HN: Any others coping with “starting but not finishing?” syndrome? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Any others coping with “starting but not finishing?” syndrome?

14 pointsazeirah6 comments

As eager developers we often start new shiny little projects, "this is going to be the best thing since sliced docker containers!" only to have turned our backs toward them a few weeks later. This always results in feelings of inadequacy, and you've wasted a lot of time and emotional effort in the process.

Do you have this problem? Have you found ways to deal with it?

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In many ways I've simply accepted it. The main reasons why I start projects are 1) to have fun coding and 2) to learn something new. At some point I realized that neither of these actually require the project to be "successfully concluded".

I know people always tell you that you ought to finish what you started, and in general I would very much agree with that. However, one should also ask oneself whether the thing one is currently working on is worth finishing - and in the case of my side projects, the answer is oftentimes "no". And I don't think that's wasted time: if I've had my fun and learnt something new along the way, then it was worth it. In the end, it would be more of a waste of time if I were to force myself to finish off the project. After all, it isn't like they would have changed the world if I had completed it...

Great advice. The stress from this can be debilitating. Instead just allow yourself to grow and learn from each experience. If you can take something away from these incomplete projects, then you have gained something.

I love this! As I take the very same approach. Side projects for me are often just an excuse to try something new, learn a new discipline (language, framework, etc...).

Moreover, you can often change what "finishing" the project means to yourself. Maybe it means just gaining enough knowledge to do something else (maybe something related to your day to day work). At the end of the day I get value out of my side projects. The only one who suffers is Github for having to host code indefinitely that I usually won't go back to :p.

This is phenomenon is more widespread than people believe. Here are some recent articles/posts regarding this https://digitalculturist.com/drowning-in-a-sea-of-informatio...

http://www.blog.theteamw.com/2009/11/07/100-things-you-shoul...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10724460

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/29/opinion/sunday/addicted-to...

Yes, I definitely suffer from this syndrome with my side projects. It's a great rush having an idea and the knowledge and skills to fulfill it and I think that drives me in the beginning. When the code base is still small and uncomplicated it's fun, easy and fast to make changes, advance, add features and get instant gratification.

Over time the reality of the amount of work required kicks in as well as some engineering ego. It's not enough anymore to just get something up and running...it has to be done according to the latest best practices, probably utilizing some new fangled technology I wanted to play with and it needs to be elegant, beautiful and perfect in every way.

The project starts becoming less about accomplishing the original purpose and transforms more into an embodiment of my own engineering ego. Once it shows some early promise, incorporates the latest stack I wanted to play with and either hits a few major design/architecture snags that bog me down or the busy becomes too much...I loose interest.

I hate it and I hate myself for working this way. I am so sick of not finishing what I start and it's the same cycle every time.

Interestingly at work, it's a completely different story. It's all about efficiency, getting the thing done, tested and deployed to production because there are another million things to get done. Super focused, conscious about what is considered good enough and very little patience for other engineers who feel like they need to constantly fiddle with something instead of moving onto bigger more important things.

Not sure if this is what you're going through but this article shines some light on it: https://medium.com/@sarahcpr/do-you-take-yourself-seriously-...

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