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I’m just like you. I stumbled upon a book called Refuse to Choose and it’s about a personality type (that is definitely not ADHD) that happens to want to do a

I’m just like you. I stumbled upon a book called Refuse to Choose and it’s about a personality type (that is definitely not ADHD) that happens to want to do a lot of things (sometimes in parallel or in sequence). It was very comforting to know others struggle with this and this book helps you to be ok with it. I wouldn’t say it “cured” me but I think about it differently now and use it more to my advantage. Worth a read at a minimum. There was one very profound idea in this book that goes like this: “If you are no longer interested in a project you started, maybe you already got what you came for”. In essence, maybe it’s not the finishing of the project you came for but maybe the learning or understanding of how it could be done if it were to be done. This realization is interesting for someone who exhibits this behavior. When I was a kid, I loved to build legos but after following the instructions and building a kit, I wouldn’t touch it again. As I think back now, it likely was because “I got what I came for” (the challenge of putting it together was more interesting to me than the end product).

ryeguy_24 7y ago
Also, I’d love to share notes with you or others because I haven’t met a ton of people that struggle with this. Zoom party?
ddelt 7y ago
I’m also just like you. So much so that what you just described speaks volumes to me. I’m going to read the book you just recommended. Thank you!
relativeadv 7y ago
Awesome thanks for the book recommendation, just picked it up. For me, this has been the defining struggle of my adult life. I've only just become truly aware of it though but when I think back to stuff like when I was a kid playing MMORPGs I would utterly struggle to make a character to level 10 before re-rolling for something more appealing. Now it is almost a pathological issue I have where I just can't seem to choose something that interests me because honestly, everything is just as equally interesting. Painting, guitar, cooking, lifting, game development, ios development, etc. Its like paralysis by analysis to the nth degree. It's easy to say "just try some things and stick with what you enjoy" but eventually the going gets (slightly) tough and i just wimp out and quit. Except for lifting...for whatever reason I've been obsessed with that for almost a decade now.
- ryeguy_24 7y ago
  I totally have the same issue. Now that I know this pattern about myself, I pause before doing anything because I know that the n-th state is me stopping the project. But I’m learning to push through and just engage in projects, because the paralysis is way worse for me than the doing and stopping.
- lososos 7y ago
  >Except for lifting...for whatever reason I've been obsessed with that for almost a decade now. My hypothesis is that exercise, especially weight training, is one of the few activities where the growth curve is front-loaded with improvement. The phenomenon of "noob gains" provides positive feedback much quicker than other activities, and that feedback is much easier to get--just look at how much you lifted this week compared to two weeks ago, or how fast you ran that last mile. By the time your gains start to slow down--whether that's six months or a year from now--you've already developed a habit.
- sopooneo 7y ago
  In my twenties, with no responsibilities and with some money, I thought to get a motorcycle and learn to ride it. I stopped when I looked at my room and saw the vast number of things I was already dabbling with and deep-diving. I knew that if I got a motorcycle it would consume my interest for something like five years as I had to understand how every single part worked down to the bolt. That could be a great thing. But for me, then, I didn't want to go into suspended animation for half a decade and wake up with deep motorcycle knowledge. So I completely dropped it.
- slothtrop 7y ago
  Similarly I've managed to stick with lifting, and cooking. The others aforementioned have faltered, but I am finding enjoyment in reading and research, and games. I think when I've reduced the pressure on myself to produce creatively at my leisure, so too has the stress. But I still do want to be creative.
dgb23 7y ago
> “If you are no longer interested in a project you started, maybe you already got what you came for”. I also realized this at some point but as a compromise I now take the time to write some text to document some conclusions. This helps with two things: It feels more finished, which is important for my mental hygiene. And when I do come back to something at a later point I can re-assess quickly what the circumstances and the value was, which can be very practical, especially if it was just some small exploratory thing.
- ryeguy_24 7y ago
  This is exactly one of the tips the book provides. Good validation of the book I guess.
dinkleberg 7y ago
That struggle is real. I've got a ridiculous amount of half-finished MVPs that I simply got bored of. It often makes me feel like an absolute failure, especially when I've told others about something I'm working on. When they ask "Hey, how is that project X you were working on 3 months ago going?" I'll have to think about it because it was probably 3 projects ago. But I think you're spot on. From each of these projects I've gained something, and once I've hit that point the drive has gone away. While I often feel like a failure with all of my "failed projects", in my day job people are often blown away by how I seem to know a lot about everything. The truth is it's because I end up trying most things in some fashion with one of these many projects.
- partisan 7y ago
  > in my day job people are often blown away by how I seem to know a lot about everything This has made my meandering journey worthwhile as well. I don't have many completed projects under my belt, but I have gathered quite a bit of design and coding techniques, different languages, technologies, etc. The one completed project (completed in a programming sense, but not a business sense), was one that was done just quick and dirty with no patterns, no architecting of any kind. I resolved to not learn anything in the process (besides understanding the dataset I was parsing for human consumption). In this way, I was able to actually "finish" something. That said, I did learn about deploying on digital ocean, about the importance of having a repeatable deployment process, etc, so it was actually a good learning experience in the end.
- lancesells 7y ago
  I feel this comment. I always have multiple stacks of physical drawings and notes for different projects that I'm working on but don't always finish. However, the best thing about all of these unfinished projects is it gets easier and easier to learn different things. Even when my interests don't have overlap they seem to add value to each other.
- have_faith 7y ago
  > half-finished MVPs What I would give to have half finished MVP's! I have a long list of ideas that I can't decide which one is the most worthwhile to pursue, so none of them get started.
CodeGlitch 7y ago
My "projects" folder on my PC is scattered with numerous projects that I've started and never finished. These range from games, tools and webpages - written in every language that I found an interest in. I think you're right in that it's the journey that matters to some, not the destination. As I've gotten older, I feel less pressured to finish these side-projects. When it comes to actual day-job work. The final 20% of a project is always the hardest for me. As I just want to move onto the next great thing. The last 20% is always the worst part for me (testing, bug fixing, documentation). It's what they pay me for though :)
- corecoder 7y ago
  > The final 20% of a project is always the hardest for me. I'd be more than happy to get to the 80%. It seems like I used to be able to do that when I was younger. It could be that I aimed lower.
- akavel 7y ago
  I like the saying I read/heard somewhere, that's I believe based on Pareto principle, saying more or less: "After getting through 80% of a project, what's left to do, is just to complete the remaining final 80%" :)
wastedhours 7y ago
> "If you are no longer interested in a project you started, maybe you already got what you came for" Very much this - I have very few finished side projects, but in hindsight I can track the course from even my first personal project in school to where I am today.
vladsanchez 7y ago
I always attributed this behavior to undiagnosed ADHD, but "Scanner" is a, unique but fitting, group I never heard of. Thanks for sharing! Zoom Party would be great! ;)
- LeonB 7y ago
  ...unique, unresearched, vague, made up, not treatable unlike ADHD, but lacking in negative stigma because it’s new and exciting and therefore even more likely to appeal to someone with untreated ADHD...
LeonB 7y ago
I see a big disconnect between: “ I know! I'll write a roguelike in X! Five minutes later, I'm thinking: fuck roguelikes! I'll write a graphical solitar card game with Y! Five minutes later, I don't care for it anymore, and would rather write an isomorphic strategy game in Z.” And: “If you are no longer interested in a project you started, maybe you already got what you came for.” There is no way that you got what you came for in those five minutes. There’s several orders or magnitude that fit into this disconnect and it just says “ADHD-I” to me. ...and I feel my eyes roll back into my head when I read this: “...a personality type (that is definitely not ADHD)” ...because the invention of new personality types and the stigmatic treatment of ADHD is just... very shallow.
- GuiA 7y ago
  If you weren’t that serious about making a rogue-like in the first place and what you really wanted was the rush of starting a rogue like project, then sure you got what you came for. Much like a kid might say they want to be a footballer or musician - what they really want is the fame and recognition of being a footballer, not the 6 hours of intense training every day for years without any fame and glory. We see this much more in tech than we did 10 years ago, because now everyone wants to be a rockstar CEO hacker startup founder making a $1 billion exit at 19. And in fact in some cases you can suck it up, major in CS, get a prestigious tech job, and then after a few years burn out because you realize you never really liked CS/programming in the first place, you just liked the social stickers that were on it. I’ve seen it happen many times in my career. Often these people will pivot to being PMs or some “tech lite” function and be much happier for it. The fact that people suck at knowing what they really want doesn’t make the observation any less valid. What that means is that you have to get really good at knowing what you actually like and enjoy - not what you enjoy on the surface of it not for its own sake, but for some values attached to it.
  - Gene_Parmesan 7y ago
    If this is a pattern that persists throughout this individual's life, it's highly correlated with ADHD. We're talking about someone who literally changes their mind within about 5 to 10 minutes, multiple times a day. At least, that's what would happen to me pre-diagnosis.
corecoder 7y ago
I'll definitely get the book. > “If you are no longer interested in a project you started, maybe you already got what you came for”. I don't know. It's one thing to leave a project unfinished, or to loose interest when it's time to fix the UI, but it's another thing to not be able to make progress at all.
- brlewis 7y ago
  In my side projects I always keep todo.txt. There's a line for each thing I need to do, in order. Putting new things in that file and removing ones that get done becomes a kind of game. Try that on whichever idea you find yourself coming back to again and again.
globular-toast 7y ago
> “If you are no longer interested in a project you started, maybe you already got what you came for”. That's definitely the case with many of my unfinished projects. My "operating system" is a good example. I have an OS written completely from scratch for RPi3 that can run concurrent processes (and pretty much nothing else). I started to look into using the MMU but quickly realised that it's very hard and I'm not really that interested in it right now. All I really wanted to know was how to write an operating system. Now I know, but I'll almost certainly never actually write a proper one.
slothtrop 7y ago
In Myers-Briggs they'd call that either the INTP or ENTP type. Similarly, I'm more interested in research, learning. I'm in the wrong profession.
- abakker 7y ago
  INTP here. Starting projects and having multiples at once sure seems comfortable, but, ADD does not. It is a measure of rigor that there are projects that get done. Now, there's something to be said for projects that were always "low priority" and are waiting for the right moment, but there are also ephemeral, same-day kind of projects that come from having the tools/resources available to you to scratch whatever itch you have. IMO, OP's problem isn't that he/she can't decide which side project to do, it's that they have already decided that the side project involves coding, and they're already a good coder. Doing your job as a side project seems...boring. Pick something you don't know how to do, but wish you did. Learn CAD, use a bandsaw, 3D print a D20, or just take your bike all the way apart. This idea that every software engineer needs to treat software as their hobby is frustrating to me. Bankers, lawyers, and doctors don't do that, why should software engineers?
  - slothtrop 7y ago
    I can agree that yet more coding as a hobby is the dullest thing imaginable, when it's your job. Honestly between reading/research, gaming, music and exercise/outings my leisure time fills up quickly enough. That being said I had long clung to the idea of having something to show, a creative effort. I've tried writing and that's been sputtering.
  - randomdude402 7y ago
    I think the origin of this idea comes from the time when personal computers started becoming available, and a generation of then young people started tinkering with them. Some of us then went on to do some version of this hobby/passion professionally. In that case, having software side projects doesn't seem so weird. Analogies that come to mind are folks like climbing instructors and mechanics, who also may have had these activities as fun hobbies before making a living at them. Nowadays there is a higher percentage of folks who got into software (or hardware or whatever) the same way the bankers, lawyers, and doctors did; it was presented as a good career choice if they learned it. I agree that expecting those folks to have side projects is unreasonable.
arosier 7y ago
"maybe you already got what you came for." As someone who frequently starts projects and doesn't finish them, I've wondered if the part I enjoy about the project is the dreaming about what could be. That little rush you get when a new idea is upon you and it's all you can think about for x days. Doing the initial research and formulating a plan. This is a dopamine rush for me. The feeling of being laser focused for those few days is invigorating. The start of something new, the potential for life changing work. It usually stops there. Maybe that's what I came for.
- quickthrower2 7y ago
  I found having an ideas sheet is good for this. You can know the idea is recorded and that removes the desire to immediately work on it. And you can later logically choose the best thing to work on from the list
  - itronitron 7y ago
    Yeah, I recommend keeping a sketchbook/journal to write down and plan out the side-projects, then when you have more available time pick which one to start on given how feasible and interesting they are now. From my own experience I have found that if something still sounds interesting two months after writing it down then it's something worth spending time on.
- badloginagain 7y ago
  FWIW I've found that there is a cross section between excitement of a new project and the momentum of that project. Most projects fizz out when the excitement wears off before the amount of work you've already done on it has enough momentum to push you to do one more task. When I push though that motivational hurdle, I find the amount of work already done incentives to continue on with it. The next task is obvious and relatively easy, because there is something to work with. Now, losing confidence that everything you've written is garbage and refactoring the same systems over and over again until you give up- that's the hurdle I choke on :D
  - 7y ago
bmelton 7y ago
> If you are no longer interested in a project you started, maybe you already got what you came for This line alone got me to go buy the book. As someone who's constantly churning through ideas, and who feels afflicted by ADHD just enough to worry about it but not quite enough to actually think I have it, I've found myself abandoning a bunch of projects when at a 'mostly done' state. Generally, I tackle the interesting parts of a project, and once I've gotten the proof of concept working (whether it's a visual PoC or technical PoC) and the only parts left to do are the boring user registration / billing parts, that's when I lose interest. I've watched my prototypes languish, and over the years I've seen other people execute them after I have and go on to great success, and have decided to make peace with the knowledge that I'm probably not the guy that would have devised a strong marketing plan, beat doors down or cold-called for sales, etc., but a part of me laments that I didn't bother finishing them at the time so as to at least act as social proof to point to and say "I did that first," even acknowledging the pointlessness of it. Thanks so much for the recommendation.
- andrecarini 7y ago
  > I'm probably not the guy that would have devised a strong marketing plan, beat doors down or cold-called for sales Ever considered pairing up with someone from a nontechnical background?
  - bmelton 7y ago
    I've tried a variety of things. The first big step once I realized that I was sloughing off the boring bits was to try tackling the boring bits first. Start with a basic app that included user registration, an empty FAQ page, etc., but that generally meant quitting the project earlier rather than later. Then I thought well, maybe I'll just build up a library of reusable components for that, but hey guess what? That stuff is boring So, that's the long way around, but yes, I have partnered up with people who might compliment my lacking skills, but it's tough finding people motivated enough that I feel like I'm letting them down if I don't keep up. I'm generally great at getting projects going through the hard bits, but in my experience, most other people fall off or lose interest in the project before it even gets to the point that I might. To date, the only thing that reliably ensures I'll complete a project is paying me to complete a project. Weirdly, if I'm getting paid for something, my mind doesn't suffer any of these ailments. I will still cherrypick the most interesting work to do, but if there are features with deadlines, so long as there's money in it, I have no problems getting myself back on track.
marianov 7y ago
My pshrink told me the same "maybe you just like to learn the new technique, not to finish". Like that I have welded a ton of steel into a carport, then left it unpainted. Given the fact that I always focus on the hard parts and the struggle to finishe the "details" and that throughout my career I've been inclined to do POCs, MVPs, and never finish things. That and the fact that every single day it takes me several times to cross the door because I forget the wallet, keys, phone, etc, make me wonder about ADHD Is there a "cure" for it or is it just a label to get and use as excuse? edit: I got bored of the pshrink after 5 sessions
- Kaze404 7y ago
  ADHD isn't an excuse, there is treatment.
- mm89 7y ago
  Hmm I do have ADHD but your first statement "learn the technique, not to finish" definitely could apply to me both in technical (software engineering and coding) areas of my life as well as artistic (music, recording, mixing, etc.).
- zenhack 7y ago
  ADHD is absolutlely a real thing, it is treatable, and there is a large adult population that is undiagnosed. If you're struggling and you suspect it may be related to ADHD, you should look into getting tested. My girlfriend got her diagnosis just a couple years ago (she's 38 now). The impact Adderall has had on her organizational capacity is immense.
droobles 7y ago
This speaks to me on an almost spiritual level, I need to get this book!
6gvONxR4sf7o 7y ago
This seems to be answering "how can I stick with a side project?" with "you don't need to." Maybe it's good advice, but OP specifically emphasized asking folks how to finish. > Has anyone else experienced this, and, more importantly, found their way out? How? [emphasis mine]
aryzach 7y ago
I used to be a lot like this too. Eventually I got tired of it because I felt like I never had anything to show (mostly show to myself and feel proud of). For hobbies/projects where the goal is just to unwind and enjoy myself, sure, I still do this. But that's often still not satisfying to me. I started making the intention to just complete the damn thing, even when it wasn't fun anymore. Motivation is hardly worth anything tbh. I used to only work with motivation, and while it felt good at the time, nothing ever got completed and I probably felt how you do a lot of the time. Second, learning is hard. If you think you're comfortable with a new language, framework, whatever.. but you lose steam when working on whatever your building with it, you might not know it as good as you think you do. It's a lot easier to keep steam when there aren't roadblocks, but when you continually come across roadblocks, it just doesn't feel like your moving towards your goal with much speed. But this is generally where the learning takes place. And I've also seen, finishing one project to completion makes it a lot easier to finish the next project to completion. It's a skill you have to learn (to do a personal project even when it's not fun, and there's nobody telling you you have to do it) tl;dr: for enjoyment and relaxation, don't finish projects if you don't want. For learning / creating, make it the goal to finish and know that it'll probably be not fun sometimes
- jvalencia 7y ago
  I might also add that you may want to scope your projects small. If you try to boil the ocean, you'd never get done.
trevorrr 7y ago
I can recommend this book, too. Most helpful for me was the concept of the scanner personality. Sometimes it just seems as you are not finishing things, for me, it's more like I'm letting some things rest for quite a long time but pick them up again later. I'm just craving variety to get fresh input for all the other things and I see this as a skill. Today I am glad that I haven't unlearned to play around. It has its benefits, tons of it, I was only unhappy with it as long as I've let others stigmatize me as lazy or undisciplined for how I am.
naasking 7y ago
> “If you are no longer interested in a project you started, maybe you already got what you came for”. Agree, I've been through this myself plenty of times. I think there's a way to turn this into a tactic though: a completed project has loads of gaps and finishing touches that a learning prototype lacks, and it comes with it's own interesting challenges that are hard to predict. So if you're interested in learning what a finished product would entail, you can only achieve that understanding by finishing a product. I've found that there are some products where I'm interested in understanding all of the details, and some which I'm not, and that's sometimes helped filter which projects I should stick with. The worst outcome is when I have to shelve a project because the tooling just isn't mature or usable enough to make the project fun.
kbash9 7y ago
Yes, but I think successful entrepreneurs know when to move on, when to pivot and when to stick with it and PERSIST. I have quote framed at my desk that goes something like this: "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men[women] with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone will bring success."
hentaiD00m 7y ago
I've got this problem except with learning / studying. I realized I am a lot into science and engineering late in life. Now I want to do all of the Khan Academy in Chemistry and Physics; learn nano-/bio-tech; learn cybersecurity... and probably should just stick to learning backend dev in order to get a job. People call this being a polymath, but I am seriously concerned for myself. The best I can do is take it one subject at a time. On the building side, I simply have no ideas I am interested going for.
Madmallard 7y ago
Yeah you're getting dopamine. Those that are more successful can get past that and make something more profound. There's a lot more than dopamine when you make something you can be truly proud of, that can potentially be a living for you as well.
_bxg1 7y ago
I'm in the same boat. Another thing I've realized is that while my interest may jump between half a dozen different things, if I just let it run its course, it tends to circle around. I.e. I don't leave an endless trail of projects in my wake, I revisit different ones as that interest rekindles. But before I realized this, I would be really hard on myself about switching, trying to force my interest to sit still, which really just killed my interest in all of them. Bottom line: don't try and pin down your interest, open up to it and let it run its course. The course may not always make sense but it knows what it's doing.
tziki 7y ago
Hey, I just wanted to say thank you for this comment. After reading it I started thinking about what I want from my side projects and realized I need to, among other things, to switch the focus from "what will happen when I finish this" to "what will I learn along the way" and to provoke my curiousity. I've been much more focused the past few days, hopefully it sticks. Thanks!

ryeguy_24 7y ago

Also, I’d love to share notes with you or others because I haven’t met a ton of people that struggle with this. Zoom party?

ddelt 7y ago

I’m also just like you. So much so that what you just described speaks volumes to me. I’m going to read the book you just recommended. Thank you!

relativeadv 7y ago

Awesome thanks for the book recommendation, just picked it up. For me, this has been the defining struggle of my adult life. I've only just become truly aware of it though but when I think back to stuff like when I was a kid playing MMORPGs I would utterly struggle to make a character to level 10 before re-rolling for something more appealing. Now it is almost a pathological issue I have where I just can't seem to choose something that interests me because honestly, everything is just as equally interesting. Painting, guitar, cooking, lifting, game development, ios development, etc. Its like paralysis by analysis to the nth degree. It's easy to say "just try some things and stick with what you enjoy" but eventually the going gets (slightly) tough and i just wimp out and quit. Except for lifting...for whatever reason I've been obsessed with that for almost a decade now.

ryeguy_24 7y ago
I totally have the same issue. Now that I know this pattern about myself, I pause before doing anything because I know that the n-th state is me stopping the project. But I’m learning to push through and just engage in projects, because the paralysis is way worse for me than the doing and stopping.
lososos 7y ago
>Except for lifting...for whatever reason I've been obsessed with that for almost a decade now. My hypothesis is that exercise, especially weight training, is one of the few activities where the growth curve is front-loaded with improvement. The phenomenon of "noob gains" provides positive feedback much quicker than other activities, and that feedback is much easier to get--just look at how much you lifted this week compared to two weeks ago, or how fast you ran that last mile. By the time your gains start to slow down--whether that's six months or a year from now--you've already developed a habit.
sopooneo 7y ago
In my twenties, with no responsibilities and with some money, I thought to get a motorcycle and learn to ride it. I stopped when I looked at my room and saw the vast number of things I was already dabbling with and deep-diving. I knew that if I got a motorcycle it would consume my interest for something like five years as I had to understand how every single part worked down to the bolt. That could be a great thing. But for me, then, I didn't want to go into suspended animation for half a decade and wake up with deep motorcycle knowledge. So I completely dropped it.
slothtrop 7y ago
Similarly I've managed to stick with lifting, and cooking. The others aforementioned have faltered, but I am finding enjoyment in reading and research, and games. I think when I've reduced the pressure on myself to produce creatively at my leisure, so too has the stress. But I still do want to be creative.

dgb23 7y ago

> “If you are no longer interested in a project you started, maybe you already got what you came for”. I also realized this at some point but as a compromise I now take the time to write some text to document some conclusions. This helps with two things: It feels more finished, which is important for my mental hygiene. And when I do come back to something at a later point I can re-assess quickly what the circumstances and the value was, which can be very practical, especially if it was just some small exploratory thing.

ryeguy_24 7y ago
This is exactly one of the tips the book provides. Good validation of the book I guess.

dinkleberg 7y ago

That struggle is real. I've got a ridiculous amount of half-finished MVPs that I simply got bored of. It often makes me feel like an absolute failure, especially when I've told others about something I'm working on. When they ask "Hey, how is that project X you were working on 3 months ago going?" I'll have to think about it because it was probably 3 projects ago. But I think you're spot on. From each of these projects I've gained something, and once I've hit that point the drive has gone away. While I often feel like a failure with all of my "failed projects", in my day job people are often blown away by how I seem to know a lot about everything. The truth is it's because I end up trying most things in some fashion with one of these many projects.

partisan 7y ago
> in my day job people are often blown away by how I seem to know a lot about everything This has made my meandering journey worthwhile as well. I don't have many completed projects under my belt, but I have gathered quite a bit of design and coding techniques, different languages, technologies, etc. The one completed project (completed in a programming sense, but not a business sense), was one that was done just quick and dirty with no patterns, no architecting of any kind. I resolved to not learn anything in the process (besides understanding the dataset I was parsing for human consumption). In this way, I was able to actually "finish" something. That said, I did learn about deploying on digital ocean, about the importance of having a repeatable deployment process, etc, so it was actually a good learning experience in the end.
lancesells 7y ago
I feel this comment. I always have multiple stacks of physical drawings and notes for different projects that I'm working on but don't always finish. However, the best thing about all of these unfinished projects is it gets easier and easier to learn different things. Even when my interests don't have overlap they seem to add value to each other.
have_faith 7y ago
> half-finished MVPs What I would give to have half finished MVP's! I have a long list of ideas that I can't decide which one is the most worthwhile to pursue, so none of them get started.

CodeGlitch 7y ago

My "projects" folder on my PC is scattered with numerous projects that I've started and never finished. These range from games, tools and webpages - written in every language that I found an interest in. I think you're right in that it's the journey that matters to some, not the destination. As I've gotten older, I feel less pressured to finish these side-projects. When it comes to actual day-job work. The final 20% of a project is always the hardest for me. As I just want to move onto the next great thing. The last 20% is always the worst part for me (testing, bug fixing, documentation). It's what they pay me for though :)

corecoder 7y ago
> The final 20% of a project is always the hardest for me. I'd be more than happy to get to the 80%. It seems like I used to be able to do that when I was younger. It could be that I aimed lower.
akavel 7y ago
I like the saying I read/heard somewhere, that's I believe based on Pareto principle, saying more or less: "After getting through 80% of a project, what's left to do, is just to complete the remaining final 80%" :)

wastedhours 7y ago

> "If you are no longer interested in a project you started, maybe you already got what you came for" Very much this - I have very few finished side projects, but in hindsight I can track the course from even my first personal project in school to where I am today.

vladsanchez 7y ago

I always attributed this behavior to undiagnosed ADHD, but "Scanner" is a, unique but fitting, group I never heard of. Thanks for sharing! Zoom Party would be great! ;)

LeonB 7y ago
...unique, unresearched, vague, made up, not treatable unlike ADHD, but lacking in negative stigma because it’s new and exciting and therefore even more likely to appeal to someone with untreated ADHD...

LeonB 7y ago

I see a big disconnect between: “ I know! I'll write a roguelike in X! Five minutes later, I'm thinking: fuck roguelikes! I'll write a graphical solitar card game with Y! Five minutes later, I don't care for it anymore, and would rather write an isomorphic strategy game in Z.” And: “If you are no longer interested in a project you started, maybe you already got what you came for.” There is no way that you got what you came for in those five minutes. There’s several orders or magnitude that fit into this disconnect and it just says “ADHD-I” to me. ...and I feel my eyes roll back into my head when I read this: “...a personality type (that is definitely not ADHD)” ...because the invention of new personality types and the stigmatic treatment of ADHD is just... very shallow.

GuiA 7y ago
If you weren’t that serious about making a rogue-like in the first place and what you really wanted was the rush of starting a rogue like project, then sure you got what you came for. Much like a kid might say they want to be a footballer or musician - what they really want is the fame and recognition of being a footballer, not the 6 hours of intense training every day for years without any fame and glory. We see this much more in tech than we did 10 years ago, because now everyone wants to be a rockstar CEO hacker startup founder making a $1 billion exit at 19. And in fact in some cases you can suck it up, major in CS, get a prestigious tech job, and then after a few years burn out because you realize you never really liked CS/programming in the first place, you just liked the social stickers that were on it. I’ve seen it happen many times in my career. Often these people will pivot to being PMs or some “tech lite” function and be much happier for it. The fact that people suck at knowing what they really want doesn’t make the observation any less valid. What that means is that you have to get really good at knowing what you actually like and enjoy - not what you enjoy on the surface of it not for its own sake, but for some values attached to it.
- Gene_Parmesan 7y ago
  If this is a pattern that persists throughout this individual's life, it's highly correlated with ADHD. We're talking about someone who literally changes their mind within about 5 to 10 minutes, multiple times a day. At least, that's what would happen to me pre-diagnosis.

corecoder 7y ago

I'll definitely get the book. > “If you are no longer interested in a project you started, maybe you already got what you came for”. I don't know. It's one thing to leave a project unfinished, or to loose interest when it's time to fix the UI, but it's another thing to not be able to make progress at all.

brlewis 7y ago
In my side projects I always keep todo.txt. There's a line for each thing I need to do, in order. Putting new things in that file and removing ones that get done becomes a kind of game. Try that on whichever idea you find yourself coming back to again and again.

globular-toast 7y ago

> “If you are no longer interested in a project you started, maybe you already got what you came for”. That's definitely the case with many of my unfinished projects. My "operating system" is a good example. I have an OS written completely from scratch for RPi3 that can run concurrent processes (and pretty much nothing else). I started to look into using the MMU but quickly realised that it's very hard and I'm not really that interested in it right now. All I really wanted to know was how to write an operating system. Now I know, but I'll almost certainly never actually write a proper one.

slothtrop 7y ago

In Myers-Briggs they'd call that either the INTP or ENTP type. Similarly, I'm more interested in research, learning. I'm in the wrong profession.

abakker 7y ago
INTP here. Starting projects and having multiples at once sure seems comfortable, but, ADD does not. It is a measure of rigor that there are projects that get done. Now, there's something to be said for projects that were always "low priority" and are waiting for the right moment, but there are also ephemeral, same-day kind of projects that come from having the tools/resources available to you to scratch whatever itch you have. IMO, OP's problem isn't that he/she can't decide which side project to do, it's that they have already decided that the side project involves coding, and they're already a good coder. Doing your job as a side project seems...boring. Pick something you don't know how to do, but wish you did. Learn CAD, use a bandsaw, 3D print a D20, or just take your bike all the way apart. This idea that every software engineer needs to treat software as their hobby is frustrating to me. Bankers, lawyers, and doctors don't do that, why should software engineers?
- slothtrop 7y ago
  I can agree that yet more coding as a hobby is the dullest thing imaginable, when it's your job. Honestly between reading/research, gaming, music and exercise/outings my leisure time fills up quickly enough. That being said I had long clung to the idea of having something to show, a creative effort. I've tried writing and that's been sputtering.
- randomdude402 7y ago
  I think the origin of this idea comes from the time when personal computers started becoming available, and a generation of then young people started tinkering with them. Some of us then went on to do some version of this hobby/passion professionally. In that case, having software side projects doesn't seem so weird. Analogies that come to mind are folks like climbing instructors and mechanics, who also may have had these activities as fun hobbies before making a living at them. Nowadays there is a higher percentage of folks who got into software (or hardware or whatever) the same way the bankers, lawyers, and doctors did; it was presented as a good career choice if they learned it. I agree that expecting those folks to have side projects is unreasonable.

arosier 7y ago

"maybe you already got what you came for." As someone who frequently starts projects and doesn't finish them, I've wondered if the part I enjoy about the project is the dreaming about what could be. That little rush you get when a new idea is upon you and it's all you can think about for x days. Doing the initial research and formulating a plan. This is a dopamine rush for me. The feeling of being laser focused for those few days is invigorating. The start of something new, the potential for life changing work. It usually stops there. Maybe that's what I came for.

quickthrower2 7y ago
I found having an ideas sheet is good for this. You can know the idea is recorded and that removes the desire to immediately work on it. And you can later logically choose the best thing to work on from the list
- itronitron 7y ago
  Yeah, I recommend keeping a sketchbook/journal to write down and plan out the side-projects, then when you have more available time pick which one to start on given how feasible and interesting they are now. From my own experience I have found that if something still sounds interesting two months after writing it down then it's something worth spending time on.
badloginagain 7y ago
FWIW I've found that there is a cross section between excitement of a new project and the momentum of that project. Most projects fizz out when the excitement wears off before the amount of work you've already done on it has enough momentum to push you to do one more task. When I push though that motivational hurdle, I find the amount of work already done incentives to continue on with it. The next task is obvious and relatively easy, because there is something to work with. Now, losing confidence that everything you've written is garbage and refactoring the same systems over and over again until you give up- that's the hurdle I choke on :D
- 7y ago

bmelton 7y ago

> If you are no longer interested in a project you started, maybe you already got what you came for This line alone got me to go buy the book. As someone who's constantly churning through ideas, and who feels afflicted by ADHD just enough to worry about it but not quite enough to actually think I have it, I've found myself abandoning a bunch of projects when at a 'mostly done' state. Generally, I tackle the interesting parts of a project, and once I've gotten the proof of concept working (whether it's a visual PoC or technical PoC) and the only parts left to do are the boring user registration / billing parts, that's when I lose interest. I've watched my prototypes languish, and over the years I've seen other people execute them after I have and go on to great success, and have decided to make peace with the knowledge that I'm probably not the guy that would have devised a strong marketing plan, beat doors down or cold-called for sales, etc., but a part of me laments that I didn't bother finishing them at the time so as to at least act as social proof to point to and say "I did that first," even acknowledging the pointlessness of it. Thanks so much for the recommendation.

andrecarini 7y ago
> I'm probably not the guy that would have devised a strong marketing plan, beat doors down or cold-called for sales Ever considered pairing up with someone from a nontechnical background?
- bmelton 7y ago
  I've tried a variety of things. The first big step once I realized that I was sloughing off the boring bits was to try tackling the boring bits first. Start with a basic app that included user registration, an empty FAQ page, etc., but that generally meant quitting the project earlier rather than later. Then I thought well, maybe I'll just build up a library of reusable components for that, but hey guess what? That stuff is boring So, that's the long way around, but yes, I have partnered up with people who might compliment my lacking skills, but it's tough finding people motivated enough that I feel like I'm letting them down if I don't keep up. I'm generally great at getting projects going through the hard bits, but in my experience, most other people fall off or lose interest in the project before it even gets to the point that I might. To date, the only thing that reliably ensures I'll complete a project is paying me to complete a project. Weirdly, if I'm getting paid for something, my mind doesn't suffer any of these ailments. I will still cherrypick the most interesting work to do, but if there are features with deadlines, so long as there's money in it, I have no problems getting myself back on track.

marianov 7y ago

My pshrink told me the same "maybe you just like to learn the new technique, not to finish". Like that I have welded a ton of steel into a carport, then left it unpainted. Given the fact that I always focus on the hard parts and the struggle to finishe the "details" and that throughout my career I've been inclined to do POCs, MVPs, and never finish things. That and the fact that every single day it takes me several times to cross the door because I forget the wallet, keys, phone, etc, make me wonder about ADHD Is there a "cure" for it or is it just a label to get and use as excuse? edit: I got bored of the pshrink after 5 sessions

Kaze404 7y ago
ADHD isn't an excuse, there is treatment.
mm89 7y ago
Hmm I do have ADHD but your first statement "learn the technique, not to finish" definitely could apply to me both in technical (software engineering and coding) areas of my life as well as artistic (music, recording, mixing, etc.).
zenhack 7y ago
ADHD is absolutlely a real thing, it is treatable, and there is a large adult population that is undiagnosed. If you're struggling and you suspect it may be related to ADHD, you should look into getting tested. My girlfriend got her diagnosis just a couple years ago (she's 38 now). The impact Adderall has had on her organizational capacity is immense.

droobles 7y ago

This speaks to me on an almost spiritual level, I need to get this book!

6gvONxR4sf7o 7y ago

This seems to be answering "how can I stick with a side project?" with "you don't need to." Maybe it's good advice, but OP specifically emphasized asking folks how to finish. > Has anyone else experienced this, and, more importantly, found their way out? How? [emphasis mine]

aryzach 7y ago

I used to be a lot like this too. Eventually I got tired of it because I felt like I never had anything to show (mostly show to myself and feel proud of). For hobbies/projects where the goal is just to unwind and enjoy myself, sure, I still do this. But that's often still not satisfying to me. I started making the intention to just complete the damn thing, even when it wasn't fun anymore. Motivation is hardly worth anything tbh. I used to only work with motivation, and while it felt good at the time, nothing ever got completed and I probably felt how you do a lot of the time. Second, learning is hard. If you think you're comfortable with a new language, framework, whatever.. but you lose steam when working on whatever your building with it, you might not know it as good as you think you do. It's a lot easier to keep steam when there aren't roadblocks, but when you continually come across roadblocks, it just doesn't feel like your moving towards your goal with much speed. But this is generally where the learning takes place. And I've also seen, finishing one project to completion makes it a lot easier to finish the next project to completion. It's a skill you have to learn (to do a personal project even when it's not fun, and there's nobody telling you you have to do it) tl;dr: for enjoyment and relaxation, don't finish projects if you don't want. For learning / creating, make it the goal to finish and know that it'll probably be not fun sometimes

jvalencia 7y ago
I might also add that you may want to scope your projects small. If you try to boil the ocean, you'd never get done.

trevorrr 7y ago

I can recommend this book, too. Most helpful for me was the concept of the scanner personality. Sometimes it just seems as you are not finishing things, for me, it's more like I'm letting some things rest for quite a long time but pick them up again later. I'm just craving variety to get fresh input for all the other things and I see this as a skill. Today I am glad that I haven't unlearned to play around. It has its benefits, tons of it, I was only unhappy with it as long as I've let others stigmatize me as lazy or undisciplined for how I am.

naasking 7y ago

> “If you are no longer interested in a project you started, maybe you already got what you came for”. Agree, I've been through this myself plenty of times. I think there's a way to turn this into a tactic though: a completed project has loads of gaps and finishing touches that a learning prototype lacks, and it comes with it's own interesting challenges that are hard to predict. So if you're interested in learning what a finished product would entail, you can only achieve that understanding by finishing a product. I've found that there are some products where I'm interested in understanding all of the details, and some which I'm not, and that's sometimes helped filter which projects I should stick with. The worst outcome is when I have to shelve a project because the tooling just isn't mature or usable enough to make the project fun.

kbash9 7y ago

Yes, but I think successful entrepreneurs know when to move on, when to pivot and when to stick with it and PERSIST. I have quote framed at my desk that goes something like this: "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men[women] with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone will bring success."

hentaiD00m 7y ago

I've got this problem except with learning / studying. I realized I am a lot into science and engineering late in life. Now I want to do all of the Khan Academy in Chemistry and Physics; learn nano-/bio-tech; learn cybersecurity... and probably should just stick to learning backend dev in order to get a job. People call this being a polymath, but I am seriously concerned for myself. The best I can do is take it one subject at a time. On the building side, I simply have no ideas I am interested going for.

Madmallard 7y ago

Yeah you're getting dopamine. Those that are more successful can get past that and make something more profound. There's a lot more than dopamine when you make something you can be truly proud of, that can potentially be a living for you as well.

_bxg1 7y ago

I'm in the same boat. Another thing I've realized is that while my interest may jump between half a dozen different things, if I just let it run its course, it tends to circle around. I.e. I don't leave an endless trail of projects in my wake, I revisit different ones as that interest rekindles. But before I realized this, I would be really hard on myself about switching, trying to force my interest to sit still, which really just killed my interest in all of them. Bottom line: don't try and pin down your interest, open up to it and let it run its course. The course may not always make sense but it knows what it's doing.

tziki 7y ago

Hey, I just wanted to say thank you for this comment. After reading it I started thinking about what I want from my side projects and realized I need to, among other things, to switch the focus from "what will happen when I finish this" to "what will I learn along the way" and to provoke my curiousity. I've been much more focused the past few days, hopefully it sticks. Thanks!