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This is exactly it. Tens of my personal projects have died in this stage. It was always much easier to move on to the next dream. There is always the next big p

This is exactly it. Tens of my personal projects have died in this stage. It was always much easier to move on to the next dream. There is always the next big problem that could use a solution. Why not build when it is what we do best? Rinse, repeat. I took a break from side projects for several years but recently got back to it and couple weeks back finished building. It is the same story all over again. Same feeling. I'm dreading what comes next.

mrhappyunhappy 8y ago
I’ve felt this so many times and kinda feeling it right now as I’m nearing launch of a side project. I think at least for me a big part of the feeling is fear - fear of the project falling flat on its face even though I validated the idea before I even started and got a lot of interest and positive feedback. As they say, money talks. If nobody is buying my stuff then all that praise and interest was bullshit - just people trying not to hurt your feelings. This is the stage where I’m about to find the truth - I either built something in demand or it was all for nothing. Also, now that I think about it, even if the project is a mild success, there comes a whole set of other boring things I’ll have to worry about like support and constant growth. There is a lack of excitement when all I’ll be doing is making modifications to something that was fun to build at first.
msandford 8y ago
I think this is why it's super useful to have a cofounder for a side project: there's someone to let down (besides yourself) when you give up too soon. This is also why funding (and employees) helps a lot of startups. Not so much the money itself, but an ever growing consortium of people who literally have a vested interest in the thing continuing. It's harder to give up when people are counting on you. If your side project isn't the kind where you want to make money in the end then you're going to need to have higher intrinsic motivation I suspect as none of these pressures will likely come to bear and help you stay motivated.
danschumann 8y ago
My solution for this was not to "look forward to the next big project", as my thinking was, but instead I looked back on my life, what were some of my best memories related to work. (there are online courses to illicit this answer, I went through Simon Sineks 'Start With Why', though you might know it anyway). So, I picked my best memories, and they were animation related. I knew that when it came to the 'switch horses' temptation, I would be able to say, "every project gets to this stage, so why would I switch to my 2nd favorite thing, because surely that would be even harder at this phase. Sure this phase is hard, but doing my favorite thing means this is the easiest version of this phase". It's kept me going.

mrhappyunhappy 8y ago

I’ve felt this so many times and kinda feeling it right now as I’m nearing launch of a side project. I think at least for me a big part of the feeling is fear - fear of the project falling flat on its face even though I validated the idea before I even started and got a lot of interest and positive feedback. As they say, money talks. If nobody is buying my stuff then all that praise and interest was bullshit - just people trying not to hurt your feelings. This is the stage where I’m about to find the truth - I either built something in demand or it was all for nothing. Also, now that I think about it, even if the project is a mild success, there comes a whole set of other boring things I’ll have to worry about like support and constant growth. There is a lack of excitement when all I’ll be doing is making modifications to something that was fun to build at first.

msandford 8y ago

I think this is why it's super useful to have a cofounder for a side project: there's someone to let down (besides yourself) when you give up too soon. This is also why funding (and employees) helps a lot of startups. Not so much the money itself, but an ever growing consortium of people who literally have a vested interest in the thing continuing. It's harder to give up when people are counting on you. If your side project isn't the kind where you want to make money in the end then you're going to need to have higher intrinsic motivation I suspect as none of these pressures will likely come to bear and help you stay motivated.

danschumann 8y ago

My solution for this was not to "look forward to the next big project", as my thinking was, but instead I looked back on my life, what were some of my best memories related to work. (there are online courses to illicit this answer, I went through Simon Sineks 'Start With Why', though you might know it anyway). So, I picked my best memories, and they were animation related. I knew that when it came to the 'switch horses' temptation, I would be able to say, "every project gets to this stage, so why would I switch to my 2nd favorite thing, because surely that would be even harder at this phase. Sure this phase is hard, but doing my favorite thing means this is the easiest version of this phase". It's kept me going.