(Not Mike, but I can relate) - I suffered from a similar problem some time ago, that I have since overcome. I'm not sure if I can offer any words of advice, but

(Not Mike, but I can relate) - I suffered from a similar problem some time ago, that I have since overcome. I'm not sure if I can offer any words of advice, but I can give you a recount of my experience that helped me overcome it. Like you, I would often start projects, leaving them unfinished after the interesting part. After noticing this trend, I stopped and did a little introspection. I thought long and hard about what I want to do in an ideal world. Do I want to be a corporate citizen my entire life (no harm in that) or do I want to do my own thing? I determined that I eventually want to be my own boss and try to build things that people (and I) care about. Although apparent, I had to realize and implant in my head that nobody was going to do anything for me. If I want to be successful, I'm going to have to bust my ass and do it on my own. I was going to have to make sacrifices and modify my behavior. I had to exercise self-control and only focus on one project at a time (I would tend to bounce back and forth between ideas). I had to treat it like a job and set up expectations and deadlines. I had to set up tasks and goals and deadlines, because flying by the seat of my pants hadn't gotten me very far, and sure as hell hadn't allowed me to finish any projects. So, I guess, what it boils down to, is that I had to make a behavior modification and realize that I have to do it on my own, and that I can gripe and groan and read about other's success on Hacker News all I wanted, but if I wanted to be successful, it was all up to me.