What do you think? Do I have a point? Am I way off?
My myself, I don't have a problem finishing my side-projects. The problem is actually getting people to use them once I have completed them. You just can't predict what will be successful (twitter is an excellent example, as well as whatsapp, instagram, etc).
For myself I was quite lucky in that my very first side-project took off and I've been earning an income out of it for the last 15 years. However every other project I've come up with since then has failed miserably, except for ones related to my core product. Now I mainly try to spend my time improving my existing products and adding features that my customers are asking for, rather than trying to dream up new ones.
Still, I do come up with ideas for amazing new products every month or two - I think that's just the nature of being an entrepreneurial, creative developer. Usually when I do some research I find that someone else has done something very similar already, so I don't waste too much time developing something that will be a dead-end.
See: http://lifehacker.com/5921478/shhh-keeping-quiet-may-help-yo...
In my opinion, the truth may be somewhere in the middle and is probably context dependent (surprise!).
However I think keeping quiet can actually be a negative in this business. Blowing your own trumpet seems to be a good way to generate hype and funding (which then generates more hype), and that can sometimes be enough to propel a startup to huge success.
Not disagreeing with you, just offering another perspective. Like I said, I think the truth is somewhere in the middle and is probably a bit more complex.
FTA I linked:
> Four different tests of 63 people found that those who kept their intentions private were more likely to achieve them than those who made them public and were acknowledged by others. [...] Once you've told people of your intentions, it gives you a "premature sense of completeness."
Like you said, the trick is probably somewhere in between.