What to do when you love big ideas but hate the actual work/details?

3 points·arcadeparade··5 comments

I hope that title doesnt come across as simple laziness, but im more interested in the big ideas in life, figuring out the basic idea of something and moving on, than working on the details. Is this a common trait?

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I don't think there's a good answer for you. The main thing I've learned over the years is that everything is about the details. Big ideas can't ever come to fruition without a huge amount of fiddly work. The trick is to find an idea motivating enough that you'll do whatever grunt work it takes to make it happen. Generally you'll never get into a position where you can be paid to think through the basic idea before moving on... unless you've developed serious expertise, which, again, is all about details.

I sense that thinking can be mistaken for doing in memory. If we've previously spent a lot of time superficially orbiting a subject, then when later reminded of that subject, it's all too easy to think "Been there. Done that. Boring." even though we never did actually land on the surface.

You could always become an "architect" or a "lead programmer". Figure out the big chunks, and the details of the new/innovative little chunks, then delegate the grunt work to "junior programmers".

Probably means a dull corporate gig, tho.

For example programming, I've approached Ruby so many times, but once I spend a couple of days on it, I abandon it again.

Think of Ruby as a means to an end. Have a project. Rather than learning Ruby for Ruby's sake, learn it because it'll help you do something you really want to do. That's the best way for me to ever learn anything -- if the thing I'm learning doesn't solve a problem I have right now it's less motivating.

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