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I've been a full time developer for 8 or so years now, and I can say, the most complex personal projects I ever finished were when I started in BASIC, before I

I've been a full time developer for 8 or so years now, and I can say, the most complex personal projects I ever finished were when I started in BASIC, before I knew what an array was. That is partly due to lack of motivation to work outside of work, but partly due to analysis paralysis when I try starting a new project. I get pretty far in, and then realize all the things I should consider and scaffolding I need to build, etc, that I lose interest. So in other words, I agree.

seivan 11y ago
Yep. The more you learn, the more you realised how little you knew. It's pretty bad actually. Not sure how to get out of it.
- sdrothrock 11y ago
  I'd noticed this for a while before I found out what it's actually called. Maybe this will interest you, too. :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  - taurath 11y ago
    If you know about the dunning Kruger effect and then apply knowledge of imposter syndrome you can power a small turbine with your self-image as it flips back and forth.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  There's a trap hidden there as well, one I realized only recently - you not just realize how little you know, you are also increasingly unable to discern the importance of it. Say you want to make a homepage. You've learned of Node.js, you've discovered Chef and Ansible, you've heard of Docker and Redis, you've seen Heroku and DigitalOcean. Where should you put it? Which tool should you use for automation? Is Grunt enough, or do you need Gulp? Which Yeoman generator should you use? Is LESS better than Sass? The answer it: it doesn't matter, ignore that stuff. Grab a random hosting (or VPS, if you know your way around Linux), hand-write some HTML and CSS, sprinkle with JS and that's it. You don't need IT infrastructure management, you don't need build tools, you don't need any stack. Just make that homepage, maintain it for a while, and notice which parts are the most annoying. Then think about how you could make those pain points disappear. Then see if any of those cool tools can help. It's much easier to understand them if you know what problem they're actually solving.
  - x0 11y ago
    Honestly I love this comment. That is such a good way to look at things. And here I am today. Ostensibly trying to remake my website, but actually dicking around with about 4 different PHP frameworks, switching back and forth every few hours. I think I'm going to go grab the HTML/CSS from it, and go back to basics.
  - seivan 11y ago
    I like your answer but it genuinely wouldn't work. Suspect, most of us know those things already. I don't think you can tell someone who suffers from analysis paralysis that it's irrelevant. You can tell them, but it might not matter. I 've come to the conclusion that the only thing works is an "authority". School, parents, work, boss, client. Basically anything that directly controls your life. Not to diminish anyones experiences, but indecision from analysing things it's like a drug, at least for me. I feed off it, and suck and impacts my life, but not instantly. Over time. I can't pick a project to finish because I only have 4 days, but then 4 days pass, and you still haven't. Now increase that into a weeks or months.

seivan 11y ago

Yep. The more you learn, the more you realised how little you knew. It's pretty bad actually. Not sure how to get out of it.

sdrothrock 11y ago
I'd noticed this for a while before I found out what it's actually called. Maybe this will interest you, too. :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
- taurath 11y ago
  If you know about the dunning Kruger effect and then apply knowledge of imposter syndrome you can power a small turbine with your self-image as it flips back and forth.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
TeMPOraL 11y ago
There's a trap hidden there as well, one I realized only recently - you not just realize how little you know, you are also increasingly unable to discern the importance of it. Say you want to make a homepage. You've learned of Node.js, you've discovered Chef and Ansible, you've heard of Docker and Redis, you've seen Heroku and DigitalOcean. Where should you put it? Which tool should you use for automation? Is Grunt enough, or do you need Gulp? Which Yeoman generator should you use? Is LESS better than Sass? The answer it: it doesn't matter, ignore that stuff. Grab a random hosting (or VPS, if you know your way around Linux), hand-write some HTML and CSS, sprinkle with JS and that's it. You don't need IT infrastructure management, you don't need build tools, you don't need any stack. Just make that homepage, maintain it for a while, and notice which parts are the most annoying. Then think about how you could make those pain points disappear. Then see if any of those cool tools can help. It's much easier to understand them if you know what problem they're actually solving.
- x0 11y ago
  Honestly I love this comment. That is such a good way to look at things. And here I am today. Ostensibly trying to remake my website, but actually dicking around with about 4 different PHP frameworks, switching back and forth every few hours. I think I'm going to go grab the HTML/CSS from it, and go back to basics.
- seivan 11y ago
  I like your answer but it genuinely wouldn't work. Suspect, most of us know those things already. I don't think you can tell someone who suffers from analysis paralysis that it's irrelevant. You can tell them, but it might not matter. I 've come to the conclusion that the only thing works is an "authority". School, parents, work, boss, client. Basically anything that directly controls your life. Not to diminish anyones experiences, but indecision from analysing things it's like a drug, at least for me. I feed off it, and suck and impacts my life, but not instantly. Over time. I can't pick a project to finish because I only have 4 days, but then 4 days pass, and you still haven't. Now increase that into a weeks or months.