False fears | Hacker News Reader

False fears

germanforblack.com

I'm gradually putting all my shit up on github, even the half-baked projects, for this reason. Especially the half-baked projects. I wish more of them were actual products with commercial viability, but they're not. By releasing them, there's at least a modicum of a chance that someone may eek some use out of them.

Or more like a chance of you yourself make a product out of them, out of shame.. I am doing this with my github account too. and see that having half-baked stuff out there is quite a motivation for me to complete them...

Funny you should mention shame. I used to feel it about my code. Then I realized everyone else's code was probably just as ugly from their own point of view. We coders tend to be perfectionists. Then I met _why. Then I (almost) stopped caring about code beauty and (completely) moved my focus to code that just plain works. Funny thing is, my code is much better looking these days. Mostly.

But you were probably mentioning shame in the context of not having the projects finished. Felt that too. But that's the great thing about github; it's completely natural for code hosted there to be works in progress.

All in all, what I'm saying is that making your code public just plain ends the shame and the feelings of inadequacy, much like looking at spiders and learning about them helps with arachnophobia. It's a shock therapy of sorts.

//All in all, what I'm saying is that making your code public just plain ends the shame and the feelings of inadequacy. Well i would say yes and no. I get your point, in the sense that to me just getting something working(even one line change) and committing to github is a sure serotonin releaser.

//But you were probably mentioning shame in the context of not having the projects finished. Felt that too.

perhaps shame is too strong a word for this feeling, but it does give me a reason to go back and complete the old projects, rather than reading around here/ learning the current(popular) shiny new language(node/ coffescript/etc..)

Almost all of my repos on GitHub are half-baked ideas with half-complete implementations. In the last few years a copule of my projects were picked up by others and inspired more complete projects and implementations. It's nice when that happens.

For some unknown reason, I've been away from github for a while now. My presence there is unknow. I create new stuff which will be useful for people like me. But then again, I think how many will be there like me. I don't know how much useful my code will be for others, I dont know if it will ever be useful for others.

But there is a sense of giving back to the community that makes me feel bad everyday whenever I get to know new things from it, just because my contribution might not be significant enough.

Everyone feels like this. Starting projects is fun and easy. Actually completing them is boring and hard, so most people don't bother.

I think part of it is we train our brains for quick bursts of things that interest us, which we can discard when no longer amusing ( cough HN cough ;) ). Willpower is a muscle, etc.

This something I fight with all of the time. I have a folder of designs that I'd love to build/share, but for this reason exactly, they never see the light of day. I think the author makes a great point about getting over the idea of failure and just putting your stuff out there. More often than not, there's probably someone just like you doing the same thing but also fearful of the "what if." Might as well take the chance and beat them to it. More than anything, I think we should become less sensitive to the intimidation of those who've already completed something and look at it as inspiration and not fright.

Kent Beck's more specific version of similar worries: http://www.threeriversinstitute.org/JustShip.html

I've been guilty of a few poor judgments and faux pas this week, this makes me feel much better, thanks!

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