

Ask HN: Can a very skilled quitter make good money? - vgdr

Hypothetically ...<p>Assume a friend of mine has this problem. He's a very fast programmer, according to anyone who has worked with him. It's not because he gradually replaces all code with his own; people notice after a day or two. Actually, I've never met anyone who can write code or debug even nearly as fast. He can deal with almost any programming task, as evidenced by the huge array of problems he's been working on professionally and on his spare time. He thinks programming is trivial, and that the real problem is figuring out what you want. When he's hired to perform a task, he sees it through to completion, and he's never late for work or appointments. Most of his jobs have been console game programming. He's confident and extroverted.<p>But it seems like these skills count for nothing when he tries to act entrepeneurial. He'll make an impressive demo within a week, before he gets distracted and starts doing something else.  Sometimes he decides to really put an effort into making a project into a product, allowing no design changes after a short design phase, except culling unnecessary features. This can give him up to three weeks before he puts the project permanently on hold. In his own words, he seems unable to complete any meaningfully large project if he's not bound by a contract. There has been tens of attempts.<p>His ambitions aren't unheard of: around 50 USD per day of automated income, in order to get rid of the obligation to perform mundane work for others, leaving him free to travel and make art. If I had a friend like this, what should he be doing to accomplish his goal?
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gizmo
As you know this is a very common problem, so there's nothing really new or
insightful we can offer as advice.

As the saying goes: "Thought leads to action, action leads to habit, and
habits lead to character". So whenever you want to make any kind of change
(however insubstantial ) you have to change your habits.

A few assorted thoughts (google for more info):

1\. don't break the chain

2\. team up with a natural finisher

3\. be aware that most people can't do anything without external pressure

4\. put yourself in a situation where failing doesn't become an option

5\. make a list of what you want to do. Yes, even if you already know exactly
what you have to do. Complete some item on the list every hour.

6\. watch this. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P785j15Tzk>

By now Your Friend should be busy on the project that's going to change the
world.

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MaysonL
IPhone apps, iPad apps, Android apps.

~~~
tocomment
explain

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BobbyH
pg and others have repeatedly said that persistence is a vital trait for a
successful founder to have: <http://www.paulgraham.com/really.html>.

My own experience is that persistence is extremely important. If I were to
give you (I mean, your friend) advice, I would say that he needs to work his
way up to being persistent for a lot longer than three weeks. Three years
seems like a bare minimum.

Having said that, maybe your friend can hack his own motivation system. For
instance, he could sign a contract with somebody that says if he flakes out on
a project, he has to pay some kind of penalty payment.

