4 ms·

Starting is easier than sustaining.

39 points by garrettdimon 16y ago

kiba 16y ago
I am in 3 months of sustained running. I don't know how I did it, but I always run 5 days a week. Really, I run on days when I have free time. Once upon a time, I failed to fill my running quota for Friday, so I ran two time on Saturday. However, all my other efforts doesn't have these kind of runs, including my startup. I don't know why that is, though. On the other hand, I am drawing every single day, when I don't have classes for a week or so. So every night, I basically upload and sell my arts for microprofit. It's rewarding and addicting like an MMORPG. I don't know why I am able to make certain things into habits. It's just weird. I always code on and off for five years though. Starting is sure hard. Sustaining activities are even harder.
- tomjen3 16y ago
  It might be worth it to take some time out of your day to journal about why the two things effect you so differently.
dotBen 16y ago
It's weird but for me its the other way around. Once something is going, if executed properly, I find structure forms and you get slowly sucked into the momentum. New problems and challenges are discovered and you can plan what the fixes are. Your strategy changes as you see the fruits of your labor turn a theory into something tangible. Milestones become clearer and you just want to drive forward to the next one. ...whereas starting (for me) is really hard. Sure I have a million startup ideas and I could just pick any one and run with it. But I know I'm not at a point in my career anymore where I can just hack away at something for shits and giggles and see what comes out of it. I know I have to pre-plan and test theories, examine size of addressable markets, look at the competition, etc... all to ensure the idea I run with is 'crap tested'. But at that point a) it is hard to find the drive to do the boring due-diligence and b) the long-term goal seems so far off it is hard to build those shorter milestones. So for me, I love jumping into a project that is slowly beginning to ramp up rather than sitting with a blank piece of paper and having to start.
bmelton 16y ago
Completely offtopic, but this is the first time I've been to Garrett's blog in a long while, and the new layout is gorgeous. His old layout was too, so that probably shouldn't be news, really, but it's always impressive to me how some people (Snook, Garrett, et al) always have the most beautiful pages.
- Luyt 16y ago
  Agreed, but I wished he removed the shadows from the body text. It distracts and makes it harder to read (a bit like moving pictures next to the text).
  - garrettdimon 16y ago
    I agree. However, it's just a theme that I purchased. I'll have to look into doing some custom CSS to see if I can easily remove it.
    - Luyt 16y ago
      Shouldn't be too hard. I think the shadow behind the titles look great, tho.
- garrettdimon 16y ago
  Thanks! However, it should be noted that in this case, I simply purchased a Tumblr theme by WooThemes. I've been hoping and hoping that I'd find time to do my own design, but all of my free time goes toward Sifter. So it ended up being a theme or nothing at all.

39 points by garrettdimon 16y ago

kiba 16y ago

I am in 3 months of sustained running. I don't know how I did it, but I always run 5 days a week. Really, I run on days when I have free time. Once upon a time, I failed to fill my running quota for Friday, so I ran two time on Saturday. However, all my other efforts doesn't have these kind of runs, including my startup. I don't know why that is, though. On the other hand, I am drawing every single day, when I don't have classes for a week or so. So every night, I basically upload and sell my arts for microprofit. It's rewarding and addicting like an MMORPG. I don't know why I am able to make certain things into habits. It's just weird. I always code on and off for five years though. Starting is sure hard. Sustaining activities are even harder.

tomjen3 16y ago
It might be worth it to take some time out of your day to journal about why the two things effect you so differently.

dotBen 16y ago

It's weird but for me its the other way around. Once something is going, if executed properly, I find structure forms and you get slowly sucked into the momentum. New problems and challenges are discovered and you can plan what the fixes are. Your strategy changes as you see the fruits of your labor turn a theory into something tangible. Milestones become clearer and you just want to drive forward to the next one. ...whereas starting (for me) is really hard. Sure I have a million startup ideas and I could just pick any one and run with it. But I know I'm not at a point in my career anymore where I can just hack away at something for shits and giggles and see what comes out of it. I know I have to pre-plan and test theories, examine size of addressable markets, look at the competition, etc... all to ensure the idea I run with is 'crap tested'. But at that point a) it is hard to find the drive to do the boring due-diligence and b) the long-term goal seems so far off it is hard to build those shorter milestones. So for me, I love jumping into a project that is slowly beginning to ramp up rather than sitting with a blank piece of paper and having to start.

bmelton 16y ago

Completely offtopic, but this is the first time I've been to Garrett's blog in a long while, and the new layout is gorgeous. His old layout was too, so that probably shouldn't be news, really, but it's always impressive to me how some people (Snook, Garrett, et al) always have the most beautiful pages.

Luyt 16y ago
Agreed, but I wished he removed the shadows from the body text. It distracts and makes it harder to read (a bit like moving pictures next to the text).
- garrettdimon 16y ago
  I agree. However, it's just a theme that I purchased. I'll have to look into doing some custom CSS to see if I can easily remove it.
  - Luyt 16y ago
    Shouldn't be too hard. I think the shadow behind the titles look great, tho.
garrettdimon 16y ago
Thanks! However, it should be noted that in this case, I simply purchased a Tumblr theme by WooThemes. I've been hoping and hoping that I'd find time to do my own design, but all of my free time goes toward Sifter. So it ended up being a theme or nothing at all.