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I whole-heartedly disagree. Starting things is my litmus-test for deciding if I'm going to take them further. Examples: • My usual way to pick a next book to

by wheels 17y ago

I whole-heartedly disagree. Starting things is my litmus-test for deciding if I'm going to take them further. Examples: • My usual way to pick a next book to read is to start reading 5. Whichever one pulls me in the most wins. • When sorting though startup ideas many of them were for things I'd prototyped / researched in the past, including the one that became Directed Edge. Unfinished projects leave positive pressure for me to go back and do things at some point in my life. Starting in on something is the best way to learn its dimensions. There's this pleasant queue of things that I'd like to finish up in life at some point before kicking the bucket, and I suspect it will only continue to get longer. I'm not saying, "don't be a finisher" – but the important thing seems to finishing many projects, not all of them.

jsharpe 17y ago
The message is not that you must finish all of your projects, but that you must decide whether you will finish them or not. If you decide to finish them, then just do it! If not, then store it away somewhere out of sight. If you want to go back to it, you can always pull it out again. Unfinished projects create clutter, and for me (and a lot of people I know) clutter depresses me and makes me less productive. I'd rather have unfinished things filed away somewhere, than out in the open getting in the way of my active projects.