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I don't really find this to be effective advice, for everyone at least. I could believe that some people can have multiple major projects going on at once, but

I don't really find this to be effective advice, for everyone at least. I could believe that some people can have multiple major projects going on at once, but I think for many, trying to split attention between projects will hurt both. That's been the case for me at least. I'm not talking about some consulting gig or school paper or something. These things you can juggle. But if you are pouring your heart into a start-up, that leaves little time to build a side project. I agree with the sentiment that one should think through good ideas and tinker with them though, particularly before changing course. I have what I think is a great business idea most weeks, and they do tend to already be done, harder than I think to build, or not as valuable as I had originally thought, ginned up on coffee some excited morning or beer some fun night.

jacquesm 17y ago
The 'do both' is not meant to last forever, just long enough to be able to decide whether your new idea really has as many 'legs' as you think it does or whether it is just folly. You have to come to some kind of closure with stuff like this otherwise it will nag you forever. So, after a couple of weeks/months of trying to shoot holes in it there is more than a small chance that the answer is 'it sucks'. If not then you have to decide which one of your 'children' you want to keep. At that junction you have several options: - sell your current project and use the proceeds to fund the next - spin off the other one to a bunch of people that you trust - kill it anyway, because your 'old' project has in the meantime gotten significantly more traction. You basically buy yourself time and and gain more knowledge to make a much more informed decision.