I sometimes contemplate undertaking a major project. When I do so, I tend to end up reasoning like this:
It would be very good if I could finish this project. However, almost all the benefits of attempting the project will accrue when it’s finished. (For example, a half-written computer game doesn’t run at all, one semester’s study of a foreign language won’t let me read untranslated literature, an almost-graduated student doesn’t have a degree, and so on.) Undertaking this project will require a lot of time and effort spent on activities that aren’t enjoyable for their own sake, and there’s a good chance I’ll get frustrated and give up before actually completing the project. So it would be better not to bother; the benefits of successfully completing the project seem unlikely to be large enough to justify the delay and risk involved.
As a result, I find myself almost never attempting a project of any kind that involves effort and will take longer than a few days, but I don’t want to live my life having done nothing, though. Advice?
I realize this does not really address your main point, but you can have half-written games that do run. I’ve been writing a game on and off for the last couple of years, and it’s been playable the whole time. Make the simplest possible underlying engine first, so it’s playable (and testable) as soon as possible.
In fact, the games I tend to make progress on are the ones I can get testable as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, those are usually the least complicated ones (glorified MUDs, an x axis with only 4 possible positions, etc).
I do want to do bigger and better things, then I run into the same problem as CronoDAS. When I do start a bigger project, I can sometimes get started, then crash within the first hour and never return. (In a couple extreme cases, I lasted for a good week before it died, though one of these was for external reasons). Getting started is usually the hardest part, followed by surviving until there’s something work looking back at. (A functioning menu system does not count.)
This seems like a really good concept to keep in mind. I wonder if it could be applied to other fields? Could you make a pot that remains a pot the whole way through, even as you refine it and add detail? Could you write a song that starts off very simple but still pretty, and then gradually layer on the complexity?
Your post inspired me to try this with writing, so thank you. :) We could start with a one-sentence story: “Once upon a time, two lovers overcame vicious prejudice to be together.”
And that could be expanded into a one-paragraph story: “Chanon had known all her life that the blue-haired Northerners were hated enemies, never to be trusted, that she had to keep her red-haired Southern bloodline pure or the world would be overrun by the blue barbarians. But everything was thrown in her face when she met Jasper—his hair was blue, but he was a true crimson-heart, as the saying went. She tried to find every excuse to hate him, but time and time again Jasper showed himself to be a man of honor and integrity, and when he rescued her from those lowlife highway robbers—how could she not fall in love? Her father hated it of course, but even she was shocked at how easily he disowned her, how casually he threw away the bonds of family for the chains of prejudice. She wasn’t happy now, homeless and adrift, but she knew that she could never be happy again in the land she had once called home. Chanon and Jasper set out to unknown lands in the East, where hopefully they could find some acceptance and love for their purple family.”
This could be turned into a one page story, and then a five page story, and so on, never losing the essence of the message. Iterative storytelling might be kind of fun for people who are trying to get into writing something long but don’t know if they can stick it out for months or years.
I submit that this might generalize: that perhaps it’s worth, where possible, trying to plan your projects with an iterative structure, so that feedback and reward appear gradually throughout the project, rather than in an all-or-nothing fashion at the very end. Tight feedback loops are a great thing in life. Granted, this is of no use for, for example, taking a degree.
I have/had this problem. My computer and shelves are full of partially completed (or, more realistically, just-begun) projects.
So, what I’m doing at the moment is I’ve picked one of them, and that’s the thing I’m going to complete. When I’m feeling motivated, that’s what I work on. When I’m not feeling motivated, I try to do at least half an hour or so before I flake off and go play games or work on something that feels more awesome at the time. At those times my motivation isn’t that I feel that the project is worthwhile, it is that having gone through the process of actually finishing something will be have been worthwhile.
It’s possible after I’m done I may never put that kind of effort in again, but I will know (a) that I probably can achieve that sort of goal if I want and (b) if carrying on to completion is hell, what kind of hell and what achievement would be worth it.
there’s a good chance I’ll get frustrated and give up before actually completing the project
Make this not true. Practice doing a bunch of smaller projects, maybe one or two week-long projects, then a month-long project. Then you’ll feel confident that your work ethic is good enough to complete a major project without giving up.
Undertaking this project will require a lot of time and effort spent on activities that aren’t enjoyable for their own sake, and there’s a good chance I’ll get frustrated and give up before actually completing the project. So it would be better not to bother; the benefits of successfully completing the project seem unlikely to be large enough to justify the delay and risk involved.
Would it be worthwhile if you could guarantee or nearly guarantee that you will not just give up? If so, finding a way to credibly precommit to yourself that you’ll stay the course may help. Beeminder is an option; so is publicly announcing your project and a schedule among people whose opinion you personally care about. (I do not think LW counts for this. It’s too big; the monkeysphere effect gets in the way)
I sometimes contemplate undertaking a major project. When I do so, I tend to end up reasoning like this:
It would be very good if I could finish this project. However, almost all the benefits of attempting the project will accrue when it’s finished. (For example, a half-written computer game doesn’t run at all, one semester’s study of a foreign language won’t let me read untranslated literature, an almost-graduated student doesn’t have a degree, and so on.) Undertaking this project will require a lot of time and effort spent on activities that aren’t enjoyable for their own sake, and there’s a good chance I’ll get frustrated and give up before actually completing the project. So it would be better not to bother; the benefits of successfully completing the project seem unlikely to be large enough to justify the delay and risk involved.
As a result, I find myself almost never attempting a project of any kind that involves effort and will take longer than a few days, but I don’t want to live my life having done nothing, though. Advice?
I realize this does not really address your main point, but you can have half-written games that do run. I’ve been writing a game on and off for the last couple of years, and it’s been playable the whole time. Make the simplest possible underlying engine first, so it’s playable (and testable) as soon as possible.
In fact, the games I tend to make progress on are the ones I can get testable as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, those are usually the least complicated ones (glorified MUDs, an x axis with only 4 possible positions, etc).
I do want to do bigger and better things, then I run into the same problem as CronoDAS. When I do start a bigger project, I can sometimes get started, then crash within the first hour and never return. (In a couple extreme cases, I lasted for a good week before it died, though one of these was for external reasons). Getting started is usually the hardest part, followed by surviving until there’s something work looking back at. (A functioning menu system does not count.)
This seems like a really good concept to keep in mind. I wonder if it could be applied to other fields? Could you make a pot that remains a pot the whole way through, even as you refine it and add detail? Could you write a song that starts off very simple but still pretty, and then gradually layer on the complexity?
Your post inspired me to try this with writing, so thank you. :) We could start with a one-sentence story: “Once upon a time, two lovers overcame vicious prejudice to be together.”
And that could be expanded into a one-paragraph story: “Chanon had known all her life that the blue-haired Northerners were hated enemies, never to be trusted, that she had to keep her red-haired Southern bloodline pure or the world would be overrun by the blue barbarians. But everything was thrown in her face when she met Jasper—his hair was blue, but he was a true crimson-heart, as the saying went. She tried to find every excuse to hate him, but time and time again Jasper showed himself to be a man of honor and integrity, and when he rescued her from those lowlife highway robbers—how could she not fall in love? Her father hated it of course, but even she was shocked at how easily he disowned her, how casually he threw away the bonds of family for the chains of prejudice. She wasn’t happy now, homeless and adrift, but she knew that she could never be happy again in the land she had once called home. Chanon and Jasper set out to unknown lands in the East, where hopefully they could find some acceptance and love for their purple family.”
This could be turned into a one page story, and then a five page story, and so on, never losing the essence of the message. Iterative storytelling might be kind of fun for people who are trying to get into writing something long but don’t know if they can stick it out for months or years.
I submit that this might generalize: that perhaps it’s worth, where possible, trying to plan your projects with an iterative structure, so that feedback and reward appear gradually throughout the project, rather than in an all-or-nothing fashion at the very end. Tight feedback loops are a great thing in life. Granted, this is of no use for, for example, taking a degree.
I have/had this problem. My computer and shelves are full of partially completed (or, more realistically, just-begun) projects.
So, what I’m doing at the moment is I’ve picked one of them, and that’s the thing I’m going to complete. When I’m feeling motivated, that’s what I work on. When I’m not feeling motivated, I try to do at least half an hour or so before I flake off and go play games or work on something that feels more awesome at the time. At those times my motivation isn’t that I feel that the project is worthwhile, it is that having gone through the process of actually finishing something will be have been worthwhile.
It’s possible after I’m done I may never put that kind of effort in again, but I will know (a) that I probably can achieve that sort of goal if I want and (b) if carrying on to completion is hell, what kind of hell and what achievement would be worth it.
Beeminder. Record the number of Pomodoros you spend working on the project and set some reasonable goal, e.g. one a day.
Make this not true. Practice doing a bunch of smaller projects, maybe one or two week-long projects, then a month-long project. Then you’ll feel confident that your work ethic is good enough to complete a major project without giving up.
Would it be worthwhile if you could guarantee or nearly guarantee that you will not just give up? If so, finding a way to credibly precommit to yourself that you’ll stay the course may help. Beeminder is an option; so is publicly announcing your project and a schedule among people whose opinion you personally care about. (I do not think LW counts for this. It’s too big; the monkeysphere effect gets in the way)