I used to find myself under the effects of this curse as well, so I would recommend the author look into why he embarks on such a thicket of unfinished side projects. In my own case, it boiled down to a mix of several imperfectly aligned factors:
1. Genuine intellectual interest
2. A desire to improve particular skills
3. A vague sense, acquired by osmosis, that industriously working on side projects during one's free time is what a Real Engineer does
Disentangling these motives and identifying a clear primary drive behind each project clears up the "hydra" feeling wonderfully, as most of the heads simply disappear once you realize that you never had a strong reason to pursue them in the first place. (3) in particular is often merely the self-castigating whisper of the internalized "should" rather than a valid reason to embark on a long and open-ended project.
If your inner motivation is satisfying intellectual interest or improving skills, you actually finished the real project behind the facade without a need for finishing the official project.
So, the mistake boils down to making up a fake official project as kind of a justification for satisfying your real needs. Maybe you would feel better if you are true to yourself and say "I do this to explore and learn, I don't actually ever intend to deliver a presentable product with this activity.".
This. I felt much better once I realized it and learned to 'delete' projects. These are like sketches an artist makes to practice for the real thing, which often never comes. But it is a satisfying learning experience.
Working backwards from the end result is a good practice to see where you want to take it. And the end result is not the deliverable itself, but how, for what purpose and by whom it is used. Will you want to charge money? Do you offer it for free to anyone? Will you take feedback? Does it solve a personal problem? If you can't answer these kind of questions, then maybe it really is the journey and you never intend on finishing a product anyway, which is fine.
> I used to find myself under the effects of this curse as well, so I would recommend the author look into why he embarks on such a thicket of unfinished side projects.
The why is easy: my brain is a damn traitor!
HN, Reddit, Wikipedia and (especially) tvtropes: a single click on any one of those sites, and 3 hours of fascinated clicking later I realise that I actually haven't got any work done, but now know a lot about spidermonkeys and the Magnificent Bastard character.
Strangely enough, instragram, tiktok, youtube and other social sites have never managed to hold my attention for more than a few minutes.
> Strangely enough, instragram, tiktok, youtube and other social sites have never managed to hold my attention for more than a few minutes.
Same for me. I guess the difference is that HN, Reddit, Wikipedia, and even TV Tropes are giving you some knowledge, occasionally even useful one; every now and then you'll stumble onto something that solves an immediate problem you have, or is otherwise transformative. That's variable ratio reinforcement right there, the basis of gambling addiction, made extra potent because the occasional win you get is actually real and lasting.
Same! For me its some combination of paradox-of-choice for what to go learn about or work on next combined with variable-ratio-reinforcement compelling me to practically do a depth-first traversal of all the cool possibilities.
I think at some point I'll need to turn it all off.
I’d like to add 4. The inertia and feel good sense of being in the flow when programming. The mind gets into a single track and wants to continue.
Fun but also exhausting.
So I stopped all that. I started learning Argentine Tango instead - lifelong project and an invitation to limitless mastery of multiple aspects of self and relationships.
F number 3. I feel we all give more than enough in our jobs.
Once our kids were old enough to go to bed and stay there we started dancing by ourselves in the sitting room. Salsa rather than tango. Don't do it so much these days because the kids are now teens and once again NEVER GO TO BED, but it was fun while it lasted
A family of tango dancers, husband and wife, returned to the tango practica at a local tango school. It’s a garden practica and they bring the baby. Beyond adorable.
But yes, when I look at the people at a milonga, one of my thoughts is - you people clearly don’t have kids do you.
Hope you can bring some of its magic back to your life, even if it’s in small doses.
this is really insightful, i am nearing ten years as SWE - i've always loved passion projects and learning outside of work. This has historically got me really far in my career. However I just started a new role as a team lead on k8s platform. I rushed out got a few NICs and started setting up a homelab to learn but havn't spent more than a few hours working on it in weeks.
for the first time in my life i'm starting to think that my hobbies outside work (and the majority of my identity) has very little to do with software.
i had never thought about how much my work was tied to my identity and it's extremely jarring.
Nearing 35 years and it started with side projects and will end with them. However, now I care more about getting high and hiking than I do about my side projects.
I actually shipped a product back in 2007 and supported it for years. Haven't shipped anything since but I am working on a scoped project that I hope to release across macOS, Windows, iOS and Android. Not looking forward to ironing out the cross-platform wrinkles as I'm so brutally lazy anymore.
do you find that the side projects are for: fun, learning, or some external pressure like the parent suggested?
what I find is that picking up a new hobby causes me a lot of mental anguish. there's a lot of very basic elementary blocks to learn. however with tech, i always have this hard skill in my back pocket that avoids those initial difficulties. if I want to learn a new language or framework, i'm not starting from scratch but a vast web of other learnings (and I slightly like the stuff so that helps.)
1. Genuine intellectual interest
2. A desire to improve particular skills
3. A vague sense, acquired by osmosis, that industriously working on side projects during one's free time is what a Real Engineer does
Disentangling these motives and identifying a clear primary drive behind each project clears up the "hydra" feeling wonderfully, as most of the heads simply disappear once you realize that you never had a strong reason to pursue them in the first place. (3) in particular is often merely the self-castigating whisper of the internalized "should" rather than a valid reason to embark on a long and open-ended project.