

Don't just scratch an itch - mratzloff
http://builtfromsource.com/blog/2012/10/13/dont-just-scratch-an-itch/

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astine
So to sum up: "It's not just inspiration, it's followthrough which makes all
the difference." And it's not just a little followthrough, but you have to
continually renew your enthusiasm and continue to improve even beyond your
original vision.

That's if you want success, but for some of us sometimes, I think that
scratching the itch is enough. If someone wants something better, they can do
better.

~~~
rhizome
The metaphor is inapt. Inspiration is not scratching an itch, it's _having_ an
itch.

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donebizkit
As was intrigued by that uncommon advice "don't follow your passion, follow
your effort" but after I read Mark Cuban's post I'd say he's right. What do
you guys think?

Link to blog post: [http://blogmaverick.com/2012/03/18/dont-follow-your-
passion-...](http://blogmaverick.com/2012/03/18/dont-follow-your-passion-
follow-your-effort/)

~~~
chrisbalt
I definitely appreciate Cuban's words.

I think the truth is that one must question the sincerity of their passion if
they're unwilling to put forth effort for it. For many, I think a passion is
something they'd like people to _think_ they do. If they're really passionate
about it, they'll do something about it; at that point, there'd be no
question.

~~~
donebizkit
I am guilty of that as well. When I am passionate it usually mean that I want
to scratch an itch. But now I think that passion is something that comes after
you put a lot of effort on the subject matter. BTW, I submitted Cuban's post
to HN to challenge the notion of passion
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4680098>

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tisme
Scratching an itch is fine. Not everything in life has to be commercial.

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michaelhoffman
> After you scratch the itch, you have a choice. You can move on or you can
> keep at it. And I bet that if you keep working at it, you’ll find a new or
> interesting wrinkle that will reinvigorate you.

But I have other things to work on that I already know are more interesting
and rewarding.

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nathan_f77
I've been working on Errbit for a while now, and that started as 'scratching
an itch'. It's great to be part of an open source community, where everyone
scratches their own itches, and their contributions improve the software for
everyone else.

As @tisme said, 'Not everything in life has to be commercial'.

~~~
mratzloff
Hi Nathan!

Errbit is great, but I think there's room for diversity. After all, Redmine,
Lighthouse, and JIRA all exist but address different use cases.

Coalmine has features that Errbit doesn't (and vice versa), but ultimately we
want to take it in a slightly different direction from Errbit and other
Airbrake-like tools.

As we get closer to 2.0 in the coming months I hope to make that distinction
even more clear.

