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My problem is that I get excited about different things with far too much frequency. This past week I've become obsessed with a video game idea. The week befor

My problem is that I get excited about different things with far too much frequency. This past week I've become obsessed with a video game idea. The week before I was obsessed with a design app that I'm working on.

sidcool 7y ago
I came here to say the same thing.
david_draco 7y ago
That's okay! Accept that many projects started will not go until completion. But many times, you will learn something on the way that you can recycle in a future project. PS: if you don't tell anyone about your "failed" projects, this strategy will make you look like a genius.
- eterm 7y ago
  I'm similar to OP in that I'll get excited about something but I don't usually get past the very intro before I get bored or frustrated and stop. So I learn very little, and often restart the same things over and over. Eventually I give up and play computer games because they steer the focus and drip-feed novelty and reward compared to actually doing anything more productive.
  - Garvey 7y ago
    This pretty much sums up my experiences. I've noticed my frustration tends to stem from a feeling of not progressing quickly enough, or getting bogged down in architectural details before strictly necessary and then abandoning the whole thing due to the assumption it's too complex for my knowledge level...
    - zhdc1 7y ago
      I think that boredom also plays a role.
      - birdyrooster 7y ago
        Imposter syndrome plays a role here. Only a tiny fraction of the population will be wired in such a way that the tedium of reresearching and reimplementing is obviated by near photographic or eidetic memory. Those people can rattle off entire APIs with all of their classes and methods for things that they haven’t seen in years. It should be no surprise that these people are the leaders of our industry and make us feel shame for our pittance of knowledge. “I know everything, just not at the same time.” But for our most gifted engineers, it’s practically as if they know everything.
- sircastor 7y ago
  The same way social media tends to amplify only the good parts of one's life...
jraby3 7y ago
I had this problem but then realized that’s the way to get nothing done. Makes much more sense to commit to ideas for a specified period of time before moving onto the next thing. Some things will stick and some won’t. But I suggest testing each project you’re excited about for at least a month with a daily habit before moving onto another one.
- tenaciousDaniel 7y ago
  Yep. I was stuck in that rut for years. But the design app has been my sole focus for almost 3 years now. It feels really good. The temptation is always there though.
nprateem 7y ago
> This past week I've become obsessed with a video game idea. The week before I was obsessed with a design app that I'm working on. But why? What was special about the video game idea that interested you, and the same about the design app? In my experience I often fail to see things through because they only interest me superficially or are primarily orientated around making money (quickly!). But I know what I actually want to do (and I'm working towards it), and the reason is that I feel that activity has merit on so many deeper levels than just making money or the intellectual challenge of solving a problem. It aligns more with a sense of purpose than anything else. So for me now, that's my yardstick. I may still do side projects that don't align with that core goal, but I don't expect too much from them - in fact if they were to actually take off they may get in the way of my core goal which would make the "success" seem pointless. Perhaps through questioning yourself and digging into your motivations you'll be able to find something that you'll be able to stick with when other things come along competing for your attention.
- rdgthree 7y ago
  For me, those side tracks are often closely related to a core goal, but still act as distractions that I have to avoid. For example, my business is in the residential real estate industry. I think a lot about rent prices as a result. I have a pet theory that there's a bubble in the world of big building financing. I would love to spend weeks just digging into the data and trying to find out what's really going on, but that's not going to help my business succeed. I resonate with what you said re: a sense of purpose. I think the way rental housing is done on the whole planet is a trainwreck, but a fixable one. I think it could improve the lives of millions of people if someone could shake off some dust and introduce some new ideas. It's huge and exciting. I guess the fundamental problem is that there are many interesting and viable angles to solve the problem, but if you want to succeed, you really have to focus on a much smaller cohort of those angles (if not just one). So yeah, I don't think it's as simple as having a better sense of purpose unless your sense of purpose is extremely narrow in scope.
  - topaztee 7y ago
    this would make for an interesting blog post.
TeMPOraL 7y ago
I do that too. The top slot in my mind flips between ideas on a weekly basis. Last week it was a videogame. This week it's worldbuilding. Next week it might be something for the job, or it might be an Emacs mode, or who knows. One thing I've noticed though - regardless of whether or not I do something about my current top most exciting thing, these things come back. The same videogame idea has been visiting me regularly for the past six months. This means that even if I lose steam after a few days of working on something, it's not work lost - I'll probably resume it for a bit a few weeks or months down the line. On top of that, I've learned to not consider any hard intellectual work as wasted. Things I've researched for random harebrained ideas I later flaked on often find a way to become useful in my dayjob, or a different harebrained idea.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- zhdc1 7y ago
  The last point needs to really be emphasized. I've had a couple of pretty major career breakthroughs over the last year simply because stuff I worked on in the past suddenly became relevant to my research. I've also noticed that I become a lot more committed to a project when I bring other people on board.
  - weaksauce 7y ago
    a lot of the things you do aren't useful in and of themselves but lead to new opportunities as you expand your skillset.
- dcsan 7y ago
  I've started writing down those ideas of interest so I can see if there are themes, or better still a meta-idea that connects some cluster of them, to start work on.
  - kingludite 7y ago
    My "joke" is to abandon them professionally. Ideally they are left in a state where someone else can pick them up. (could be me 10 years from now)
davidjnelson 7y ago
What I do is write them all down in an evernote note. I have 50+ ideas in there. At one point I went through and decided which was most interesting. I still add new items to the list, but at least it's out of my head and I can go back to the one I decided I'd focus on :-)
jlelonm 7y ago
That's my problem as well. The docs told me I have ADHD. Maybe you do, too?

sidcool 7y ago

I came here to say the same thing.

david_draco 7y ago

That's okay! Accept that many projects started will not go until completion. But many times, you will learn something on the way that you can recycle in a future project. PS: if you don't tell anyone about your "failed" projects, this strategy will make you look like a genius.

eterm 7y ago
I'm similar to OP in that I'll get excited about something but I don't usually get past the very intro before I get bored or frustrated and stop. So I learn very little, and often restart the same things over and over. Eventually I give up and play computer games because they steer the focus and drip-feed novelty and reward compared to actually doing anything more productive.
- Garvey 7y ago
  This pretty much sums up my experiences. I've noticed my frustration tends to stem from a feeling of not progressing quickly enough, or getting bogged down in architectural details before strictly necessary and then abandoning the whole thing due to the assumption it's too complex for my knowledge level...
  - zhdc1 7y ago
    I think that boredom also plays a role.
    - birdyrooster 7y ago
      Imposter syndrome plays a role here. Only a tiny fraction of the population will be wired in such a way that the tedium of reresearching and reimplementing is obviated by near photographic or eidetic memory. Those people can rattle off entire APIs with all of their classes and methods for things that they haven’t seen in years. It should be no surprise that these people are the leaders of our industry and make us feel shame for our pittance of knowledge. “I know everything, just not at the same time.” But for our most gifted engineers, it’s practically as if they know everything.
sircastor 7y ago
The same way social media tends to amplify only the good parts of one's life...

jraby3 7y ago

I had this problem but then realized that’s the way to get nothing done. Makes much more sense to commit to ideas for a specified period of time before moving onto the next thing. Some things will stick and some won’t. But I suggest testing each project you’re excited about for at least a month with a daily habit before moving onto another one.

tenaciousDaniel 7y ago
Yep. I was stuck in that rut for years. But the design app has been my sole focus for almost 3 years now. It feels really good. The temptation is always there though.

nprateem 7y ago

> This past week I've become obsessed with a video game idea. The week before I was obsessed with a design app that I'm working on. But why? What was special about the video game idea that interested you, and the same about the design app? In my experience I often fail to see things through because they only interest me superficially or are primarily orientated around making money (quickly!). But I know what I actually want to do (and I'm working towards it), and the reason is that I feel that activity has merit on so many deeper levels than just making money or the intellectual challenge of solving a problem. It aligns more with a sense of purpose than anything else. So for me now, that's my yardstick. I may still do side projects that don't align with that core goal, but I don't expect too much from them - in fact if they were to actually take off they may get in the way of my core goal which would make the "success" seem pointless. Perhaps through questioning yourself and digging into your motivations you'll be able to find something that you'll be able to stick with when other things come along competing for your attention.

rdgthree 7y ago
For me, those side tracks are often closely related to a core goal, but still act as distractions that I have to avoid. For example, my business is in the residential real estate industry. I think a lot about rent prices as a result. I have a pet theory that there's a bubble in the world of big building financing. I would love to spend weeks just digging into the data and trying to find out what's really going on, but that's not going to help my business succeed. I resonate with what you said re: a sense of purpose. I think the way rental housing is done on the whole planet is a trainwreck, but a fixable one. I think it could improve the lives of millions of people if someone could shake off some dust and introduce some new ideas. It's huge and exciting. I guess the fundamental problem is that there are many interesting and viable angles to solve the problem, but if you want to succeed, you really have to focus on a much smaller cohort of those angles (if not just one). So yeah, I don't think it's as simple as having a better sense of purpose unless your sense of purpose is extremely narrow in scope.
- topaztee 7y ago
  this would make for an interesting blog post.

TeMPOraL 7y ago

I do that too. The top slot in my mind flips between ideas on a weekly basis. Last week it was a videogame. This week it's worldbuilding. Next week it might be something for the job, or it might be an Emacs mode, or who knows. One thing I've noticed though - regardless of whether or not I do something about my current top most exciting thing, these things come back. The same videogame idea has been visiting me regularly for the past six months. This means that even if I lose steam after a few days of working on something, it's not work lost - I'll probably resume it for a bit a few weeks or months down the line. On top of that, I've learned to not consider any hard intellectual work as wasted. Things I've researched for random harebrained ideas I later flaked on often find a way to become useful in my dayjob, or a different harebrained idea.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
zhdc1 7y ago
The last point needs to really be emphasized. I've had a couple of pretty major career breakthroughs over the last year simply because stuff I worked on in the past suddenly became relevant to my research. I've also noticed that I become a lot more committed to a project when I bring other people on board.
- weaksauce 7y ago
  a lot of the things you do aren't useful in and of themselves but lead to new opportunities as you expand your skillset.
dcsan 7y ago
I've started writing down those ideas of interest so I can see if there are themes, or better still a meta-idea that connects some cluster of them, to start work on.
- kingludite 7y ago
  My "joke" is to abandon them professionally. Ideally they are left in a state where someone else can pick them up. (could be me 10 years from now)

davidjnelson 7y ago

What I do is write them all down in an evernote note. I have 50+ ideas in there. At one point I went through and decided which was most interesting. I still add new items to the list, but at least it's out of my head and I can go back to the one I decided I'd focus on :-)

jlelonm 7y ago

That's my problem as well. The docs told me I have ADHD. Maybe you do, too?