"you can just do things," but I need to do less

I rarely finish what I start, so now I'm fixing my focus

I missed something huge in my last letter. I want to publish to force myself to finish things.

Most of my projects never get finished for 2 reasons:

1. scope creep. I take on too much, my vision is too grand for lil ole me to execute alone

2. distraction. I have so many new grand ideas that I start that none ever get finished

For my personal coding projects, I always aim to build apps with a breadth of features, enterprise-level support, and seamless user experience. I face a similar issue with writing. I want to write full length essays, well-researched think pieces and epic fantasy trilogies.

I know i"m not alone in this. Tech twitter is riddled with jokes about "buying another domain" for my unfinished side project.

The blocked artist does not know how to begin with baby steps.

Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way

I've been thinking about this a lot in context of the 80/20 rule. I only need to build the first 20% of my grand vision for the app to get 80% of the outcome. So why build all of it if 20% is good enough? It's okay for my creations to be mediocre right now as long as they are functional and in existence.

I am now aiming to build the barest of MVPs. I'm writing short stories and 5 paragraph essays. If feedback is good, I can revisit the project later to flesh it out. I'm doing this stuff for fun, and I want to build it and move on as fast as I can. There's so much to get to!

Creating simple things in the short term requires me to lower my standards in exchange for speed, confidence, and direction. As I complete projects, I create a resume of work and vault of expertise. In the long run, my highest quality ambitions become possible to pursue.

The great part about consistently sharing your work as you go is that you create a collection of related or serial ideas. You can repackage them into one singular experience at the end. How many influencers/thinkers/bloggers have conglomerated their previous posts into a published book? Quite a few, I suspect.

Another thing that's been missing from my life is feedback. As much as I hated the American school system, I kind of miss the rapid pace and forced review for tests. But tests close the feedback loop and let me know where I stand with a certain knowledge set. In my adult lief, finishing and sharing lots of things is my plan to close the feedback loop. Finishing something allows for me to reflect on what can be improved for next time. Feedback provides an external perspective.

I've felt so stuck the past couple of years because I started things I couldn't commit to and lost excitement for things before I finished. I distracted myself with my grand plans. For now, I plan to work small, so that I can execute on large ideas in the future.