He is writing about art (creative writing), as opposed to commercial product. Art is fairly inward-focused, and its goals can be a lot “fuzzier” than product. I was an artist, in my Yute. At one time, I wanted to actually make a living from it.

But artists finish, all the time. Some, treat their art as a product, and that seems to help, but they also risk commoditization of their creativity.

I’ve spent pretty much my entire life, shipping software. That’s been for externally-imposed deadlines, usually as part of an integrated team, with synchronized milestones.

As he mentions, that helps a lot.

Since working on my own stuff, I’ve had to drastically reduce the scale of my work, and practice self-discipline that, I suspect, many folks here would consider extreme.

But I still finish stuff. Finishing stuff is actually part of the personal satisfaction that I get. It’s an art, in itself.