
If you don’t finish then you’re just busy, not productive - jbsimpson
http://www.jacksimpson.co/finishing-being-productive-busy/
======
pipio21
One of the biggest Aha!! moments I had happened when I created my first
company and realized how important joining people of different personalities
together is in order to make them prosper. Making teams instead of solo work.

For example a very good designer or visionary could see the forest but finds
it very hard to face each individual tree. There are other people that can't
see the forest by themselves but are extremely efficient working on tree after
tree.

You just join them together and magic happens.

It is a terrible thing that our educational system favors so much
individualism, even when most important work(Nobel prices, great products or
services) are done in teams.

When someone starts too many projects but finish none, for me is a symptom
that he simply can't finish it alone. In my company I have gotten practice on
making people finish things.

This is probably the biggest thing Silicon Valley has, there is always someone
who can help you and you help her too.

~~~
fpoling
It may seem that US educational system favour individualism, but there are no
indications that it has any significant consequences. Google failed to find
correlations between performance at college and performance at work [1].

Also there are schools where children are free to do anything during school
time including entering/leaving any lecture or activity at will at any moment.
Yet there are no indications that on average it makes those that attend such
schools any worse in a later life [2]

[1] [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/business/in-head-
hunting-b...](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/business/in-head-hunting-big-
data-may-not-be-such-a-big-deal.html?partner=socialflow&smid=tw-
nytimesbusiness)

[2] [https://www.amazon.com/Free-Learn-Unleashing-Instinct-
Self-R...](https://www.amazon.com/Free-Learn-Unleashing-Instinct-Self-
Reliant/dp/0465025994)

~~~
65827
Fortunately there are more metrics to judge the value of an education and a
life than "how productive were they at fucking google".

~~~
sdenton4
It's not that academics are not a useful precursor to work, but that the
academy and the company are evaluating people on apparently orthogonal
metrics. Which in itself is a really interesting result.

------
delegate
I generally agree with the article.

However there is another side to the coin.

The tldr is that _Some things are better left unfinished_.

The longer version:

Some projects are just experiments and learning exercises, even though at the
moment we feel like this is going to change the world (note: the world will
change anyway).

The reality is that there's just too much stuff - physical products or digital
applications, music or movies - it's just too much shit out there !

And not all of it is good, in fact, as with anything - most of it is crap
which only adds to the cognitive noise or pollutes the environment.

Why should you contribute your half-assed idea/project/product to the ocean of
useless things, apps, art that's out there ?

If during the initial phase of development you don't have a clear answer to
this question, then it is OK to abandon it and move on to something else.

There's no shame in accepting that _most of the time we have shitty ideas_. By
"idea" I mean not just the actual technical stuff, but the whole "build a
company" ideation that goes along with it - how you're going to get rich and
get invited to TV shows, write blog posts which millions retweet and shit like
that. A lot of young people unfortunately bet their youth and mental health on
trying to prove otherwise.

Creative energy is very similar to (if not the same as) sexual energy. It's
something that just 'grows' inside us and it must be released. But not all of
the sexual energy should be used for its intended purpose - creating new
humans - otherwise we'd quickly run out of space on the Planet.

Sometimes it is ok to just 'vent' and waste a little bit of that energy in
order to make room for fresh 'energy' :).

So it's ok to just "masturbate" intellectually from time to time without
actually finishing it.

Career-wise, you probably want to finish one or two, maybe several projects in
your life.

~~~
riskable
Generally I agree that it's just not worth it to release projects and code
that are unfinished or not very useful but there's often gems inside these
things.

How many of us have struggled with something complicated and found some golden
function or bit of code hidden inside some otherwise useless project that
solves the problem? Even if you don't use such code it can still be incredibly
useful for understanding how things work.

I often rip out the useful bits of unfinished/unreleased projects and just
paste them to gist.github.com. Some of them have received comments like, "I
don't know where this came from but it's exactly what I was looking for! Thank
you!"

Posting your whole useless project _can_ be helpful.

~~~
quanticle
The problem with releasing useless and unfinished projects is that when people
are taking your github profile as your resume, they're going to be seeing a
bunch of useless, half-finished projects. It doesn't make a very good first
impression.

For this reason, I'm increasingly moving my code off Github and onto
Bitbucket. Despite having a worse UI, Bitbucket at least allows me to make
private repositories for free, which means that I can make repos public if and
only if I think it's ready for an interviewer to look at it.

~~~
ch4s3
Anecdotally, as someone who occasionally I never "penalize" people for having
lots of unfinished projects. If they try interesting things a lot, that's a
plus.

------
jen729w
I realised I was guilty of this in 2016 so for 2017 I've made a few simple
changes, the primary one being how I write my "project" name in OmniFocus.

For instance, I had "Learn how to use bash properly". Well, what does that
mean? When is that finished? It never is. Now, that project is called "Read
'Learning the bash shell'".

Immediately, that's attainable. When I've finished reading the book, perhaps
I'll want to do more, perhaps I won't. But at least I know that I'll have
_completed_ that project.

~~~
cel1ne
Why do you even set yourself such a goal?

Just learn to use it when you need it, or when you have a task, where you
suspect that it might be faster done in bash.

~~~
throwanem
Reading a book on it can give you a better idea of which tasks might be faster
done that way, so that when you run into one, you're better equipped to
recognize it as such than you might otherwise be.

~~~
cel1ne
That is actually very correct.

I remember reading a book about the Shell and bash 15 years ago. It was the
only book I read about the topic, but it helped me a great deal to develop an
intuition about what it can do.

Didn't prevent me though from getting sometimes lost in crafting complex
scripts, where manual work or a java-program would have been faster.

~~~
throwanem
Well, that's sort of the problem with bash scripting - its range of
capabilities, combined with its atrocious syntax and various limitations,
makes it something of an attractive nuisance, where you end up in a rabbit
hole of "how do I do this in bash" while doing it in anything else would be
more productive.

Maybe the most important thing to learn about shell scripting is when _not_ to
use it. Alas, if the book that teaches that skill has been written, I have yet
to run across it.

~~~
SEJeff
The shell is a tool, as is a proficiency in C, Python, Java, Golang, etc. The
more tools you can successfully wield, the more you can build. Just because
you're not super proficient in the shell doesn't mean someone else might be
the same, so you shouldn't simply dismiss it. It is simply another tool to use
and your "when not to use" question can literally be used with ANY technology.

As an exercise, try replacing bash / shell scripting with SQL or C or Python.
This is the fallacy in your argument :)

~~~
cel1ne
[Meta: Why I think you have been downvoted]

> " _Just because you 're not super proficient [...] As an exercise [...] This
> is the fallacy in your argument_ "

This assumption of missing knowledge and handing out of an "exercise" in
logical thinking comes across rather patronising. Also I'm not sure where the
argument was, that you found a fallacy in.

Thank you for your contribution, nevertheless. I too believe that the decision
on whether to use a tool or not, depends on your knowledge about it.

------
m3kw9
For learners, finishing matters because:

1\. The learning you get from going thru whole cycle is valuable for next
projects. Even if you release a few turds. Say you release an iOS app as a
measure of finish.

For veterans, finishing does not matter because:

1\. If you see a piece a piece of turd and not able to say no to it, you will
probably be wasting valuable time finishing to save face as the author may
suggest. \--- Is like in war, you need to know when to retreat, and cut
losses(save your time and not finish). That's the perplexing part is when to
retreat at the right time.

------
dheera
It also depends on your own risk/reward equilibrium for personal side projects
vs. career projects.

I take much bigger risks with personal projects than career projects. I don't
care if 95% or more of them fail or are not completed for good reasons (cost,
physically impossible, etc.).

To a great degree, I don't even tell people about the failed personal
projects. In fact that's one thing I love about personal projects. With career
projects, the most annoying thing to me is that you are forced to tell people
(cofounders, employees, investors, customers, family, friends) what you're
going to do, and then you have to try to live up to it. With personal projects
you don't have to tell anyone. And because you don't tell anyone, you won't be
discouraged by anyone. You can set out to build A, and end up building B, or
end up building nothing and just having a good time, and you don't have to
worry about leaving a bad impression.

If you built A, you say you built A. If you built B, you say you built B. If
you built nothing, you say nothing at all. It's awesome. The point is I don't
like _saying_ anything until I've actually built something that minimally
works.

If you're motivated and disciplined enough, this is an excellent framework for
exploration. In particular, the human ego/desire to _say_ something means that
I'm motivated to keep at it until I have built something that allows me (under
this framework) to say something.

------
mosselman
While I agree with regards to being productive and I also agree that
'finishing' things feels good, I still doubt that 'being productive' should
always be the goal.

I have discarded many 'side projects', but the lessons learned from those
projects have made me a lot more productive in my job. For most projects I
don't even feel bad about the time I spent doing them since I had fun figuring
out how to implement some of those things.

Take playing sports for example. I like to play football, the kind played with
my feet and a ball, not the one played with one's hands and a oval leather air
container. This is never 'finished', but doing so I exercise my body, clear my
mind and most importantly, I have fun. I see a parallel for one game of
football with figuring out how to test some external API in a side project.
After discarding the side project (a few games of football) I still know how
to test external APIs. Just as playing 1 game of football won't get me any
closer to winning the champions league, my condition (skills) are better and I
had fun (fun) along the way.

Stop being so hard on yourself.

If you DO want to create a serious company out of your side project it
probably IS a good idea not to let yourself get distracted by other fun
projects along the way though. Especially if you are juggling a full-time job
along side of it.

------
xolb
> What is the minimal state of completion this project needs to reach for me
> to consider it a success and having been worth my time?

I used to think like that, but this is a moving point. As long you finish a
list of things that you deemed important, many others will replace the old
ones and the list actually will never be empty. This feeling of fulfillment
will never come.

So I'm doing differently this time in my startup (that was also my side
project for a while). I created a funnel and measured everything. I cannot
develop anything on top of my head (We, developers, are creative by nature,
and it's easy to find a myriad of interesting new features). The new feature
needs to come from data and user feedback only. No exceptions.

The funnel is completed and has being measured, then the project is completed.
Everything beyond that is just optimization. This was a shift in my mind and I
feel much better because I finished the project, instead of constantly open.
And of course, this is not a mind tricky. The project is actually completed.

~~~
laichzeit0
> user feedback only

This reminds me of the quote by Henry Ford when he said if he had asked people
what they wanted they would have told him "faster horses". Sometimes users
don't know what they want till you give it to them.

~~~
galvin
That is valuable feedback. It tells you horses are too slow.

------
blazespin
Just redefine what it means to finish, and voila, you're productive.

~~~
bbcbasic
Today I aim to post on HN.

Get in!

~~~
Philomath
Today I aim to write my first ever comment!

Done.

~~~
L-four
Today

------
dufhlwiuegh
As a prolific non-finisher I have to disagree to make myself feel better. My
laptop is littered with half-done projects but so what ? They're simply
sketches, explorations, they were never intended to be anything great. You
explore a path and see where it goes...sometimes it fizzles out and that's
fine. I've got some projects I've been revisiting on and off for like 8 years
and they'll probably never amount to anything, but they help me learn about a
particular aspect of coding or maths.

------
sevensor
So, to summarize, he's writing blog posts about finishing things instead of
writing his dissertation.

~~~
Strom
He finished the blog post. That can already be a motivating factor as the list
of finished things has increased.

~~~
sevensor
Or it can be a demotivating factor, as the list of things he's finished has
increased but he's not a single step closer to finishing. I've seen lots of
grad students invent plausible reasons to do things that aren't finishing the
dissertation, and this blog post fits that description.

------
tzakrajs
I drop projects that seem interesting at the outset or in abstract when they
stop being rewarding. It is better to move on to the next project, because you
could learn something substantial about the world around you while your head
is up. Eventually there will be a project that you cant shake and you execute
fully on it.

------
greenspot
Is 'not finishing' an inherent problem of being a coder and a coder's reward
system?

When I look at myself, coding is great when I learn new things, new APIs, can
glue stuff together to create new systems which haven't been there before.
Once I master a technology or have to do stuff which was done million times
before it gets boring. Then, I rather seek for the next kick, the next API,
the next language/framework/lib.

So, having ongoing novelties seems to be an important part of a coder's reward
system. This hurts finishing and going the last mile, the most difficult part
of a project that is not about facing steady novelties. Often it even means to
abandon the shiny new tech and rebuild stuff in some proven tech.

However, the bad is you never finish, the good is you learn all the time.
Better than checking Facebook, Instagram and your smartphone 24/7.

~~~
dasboth
I find this as well. My motivation for new projects is 100x compared to my
motivation to finish existing ones, and I feel part of it at least is because
on the existing ones I've reached a point where I'm not learning anything from
finishing them. The flipside is that I have a lot less work that I can point
to having done, compared to how much I've actually done. Having 5 completed
things to show is better (for "achievement" purposes) than 20 projects at 80%,
but the rewards as you say favour the latter.

This year I'm thinking about only working on projects where I'd actually use
the outcome for something. If it's a project for the sake of learning library
X, I won't do it. If it's a project to solve problem Y for myself, I'll try
and work on that, learning anything I need along the way.

------
hekker
In my experience being productive is more a matter of setting a clear scope of
goals on which I'm going to focus on the next X months. Other than the strict
necessary tasks that might interrupt activities related to these goals, no
extra goals may be added until one is finished. After that, at the beginning
of each day I decided what micro-tasks I want to do (write paragraph X of
paper, fix bug Y in project Z) and I don't go home until I am done. Everyday
it seems like I am only doing small tasks but after time these tasks add up
and I finish big projects. Big projects/goals are not finished over night, you
need time. It's easy to get demotivated when there are big tasks ahead. The
key is to chop them into do-able, reachable tasks and you hold yourself
accountable to fix these tasks no matter what.

------
SubiculumCode
This has been true in my academic career also. The ability to say no is
important.

------
n1000
I also learned this the hard way recently. I have always been extremely busy.
But finishing a large project, such as a PhD, forced me to learn that one
needs to check at least 1 or 2 of these boxes on the todo list in the evening.
Otherwise there has been no progress and, even worse, I will go home
frustrated and have burned a lot of energy. Oh yeah, and ask a doctor about
ADD.

------
terrywang
"Finish what you have started before starting / working on new
projects/tasks." \- My boss

Following the GTD methodologies (it's been a long time habit), a lot of small
things get to the bottom of the list while new ones keep coming along,
properly prioritizing tasks is the key.

After all, most people can only work on 3-5 tasks in parallel in real life.

------
benologist
I think if your goal is launching you've got to make sure the work you're
doing is enabling that to happen sooner. Once you start prioritizing as little
as possible into pre- and as much as possible into post- launch bad ideas
start filtering themselves out during the wait.

I think one of the big traps is convincing yourself part of 'make x to do y'
always includes 'learn a new stack' that will be 1% technically-better but
800% slower than what you used last time. Pretty crap optimization if you goal
is to launch anything.

I think for developers on HN it's also very easy to build something with the
expectation we'll want to discuss it 2 - 3 times a week on the front page for
them to get users, neatly solving the business side in advance!

------
juiced
To sum it up:

An unripe fruit attracts no birds, they only come when it becomes sweet.
-Ghost In The Shell 2, Innocence

------
LifeQuestioner
"Under that system, things like polishing and refactoring my code (which can
be a valuable use of your time, but I would frequently use them to
procrastinate), counted equally towards my goals for the day, even if I wasn’t
actually making any real progress."

...so set the goal before you start your Pomodo task.

That's what I do.

I choose something I can get done in say and hour and start the task for an
hour and try and get it done during this time. This also gamifies my time, and
I have to keep redirecting my focus on the goal. I get shitloads done during
this. During my 10 minute break in between, i'll reflect on the task, decide
next goal, etc. And repeat.

------
nraynaud
i have 2 counter points: \- people with focus issue do their best to finish
before the focus slips \- people with depression tends to not finish, some
shrinks thinks it's ok, because it's at least being active and it's a sign of
seeking a path.

------
andersonmvd
"You call it procrastination, I call it thinking", that's a quote I heard in a
TED talk :)

Leonardo da Vinci seems to be one of those who procrastinated/thought a lot.

------
bryogenic
Is it just me or is the title sentence difficult to parse? Is this a correct
interpretation of the author’s intent:

> Having a habit of not finishing your side projects means you are a busy
> person; not an unproductive one.

The author never came back to the word “productivity” or what that means to
him in relation to side projects so I don’t feel like I can say with
convection that my re-wording is correct.

~~~
j_jochem
I interpreted the headline as saying if you don't finish your projects, you're
not productive but busy.

~~~
bryogenic
So which is it is saying:

> You are both unproductive and busy (both bad)

> You are both unproductive and busy (but busy is okay)

> You are productive but also busy

> You are unproductive because of your busyness

This is hard for me because productivity invokes delivering value. Busyness
invokes behaviors that take up time but deliver less value. Conflating these
two with out really going into any of their virtues and how they interact with
each other seems glossed over.

------
ausjke
Agile, MVP are all designed to cope with that, i.e. deliver from the start,
and grow along the way.

------
tonyedgecombe
I don't have problems finishing but I find it exhausting, I guess it's the
effort of forcing myself to complete all the tedious details required at the
end of a project. I usually need a few weeks at least before I start the next
project.

------
mixmastamyk
People often work with a personal trainer in the gym for the same reasons. The
trainer's knowledge is useful of course, but obligation and teamwork is a
major success factor as well.

------
z3t4
the secret to finish a project is to set a realistic goal

