

Ask HN: Courage to build stuff - thiagofm

Here's the deal, I find myself procrastinating a lot. I think I have a good idea, I know a big community of people that uses spreadsheets to do something.<p>Why my brain still makes me procrastinate instead of developing something that COULD make me some good money, and actually... It's a cool thing, I can expand it a lot, make it useful.<p>But why my brain still do that with me?<p>How to deal with those feelings? I have all the skills that I need, actually... I'm really well versed with the web universe, I easily get hyped by languages, concepts and so on, and learn them easily. But why when it comes to building actually something good, something inside feels wrong?
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jimisir
Hey! am actually in the same position as you are. I think I have a good idea
but I can come up with a million reasons why i'm not developing e.g. being in
school taking 7 classes, studying for the GRE being in debt bla bla bla.

Anyways, to remedy this, it was pretty much just a basic decision. I told
myself that I'm wallowing in self pity about problems and not doing anything
about it. I decided to act now.

This is not enough though, I think it's important to hold yourself accountable
to someone. Maybe get invovled in a startup competetion that requires an
update every week, tell a close friend about the idea ( this helps to validate
it maybe, and they might keep asking you about it forcing you to build it).
Set minimal goals (like oh, i'm going to get my login system working today).
And just start building.

Products really just start out as features. If you can implement just one
simple feature, you'll be well on your way. And don't be afraid, just be the
man in the arena <http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/trsorbonnespeech.html> I
hope this helps.

PS - Stop reading too many blogs and news and stuff! Just build..I know I
always get carried away by tech news instead of being the news

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dholowiski
If it's really something you're in love with, just do it. Lie to yourself and
pretend that you're just building it for your own use, then when you can't
stop yourself from grabbing people on the street and telling them how great it
is, release it to the world.

If you're not that excited about it, then build the thing you're really
excited about. If it's the most exciting thing you can think of right now,
start building it for the learning experience, and jump ship when you think of
something better.

Seriously. I challenge you to write 100 lines of code tonight.

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vicngtor
I think you are too afraid to fail. You are too worried that if you build
something shitty (at first), your peers will judge you.

I say f __k it, just do it and launch. Life is too short to worry.

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bo_Olean
What do you want to prove by not starting to work on your ideas today ? Ask
"What do I want to prove by not doing X ?" recursively to yourself unless you
find enough reasons to get started..

I couldn't find the thread few weeks past where I read similar comment. It
actually worked for me. If anyone remembers the thread please link it here.

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keiferski
Realize that you have a huge amount of power and ability. There are thousands
of people like me: tons of ideas but no technical knowledge to implement them.
Many people would _kill_ for the ability to build an idea at will.

You've got the power; don't waste it.

~~~
glimcat
The same argument really strikes both sides of the path. Avoiding the water
because you can't swim seems reasonable, but no one has ever learned to swim
without jumping in the water.

Speaking for myself, the only reason I can (appear to) pull prototypes out of
thin air is that I've done it more times than I can keep track of. Even then,
there are unique challenges almost every time.

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Cilvic
What exactly feels wrong? Take a small step i.e. write something down, draw
something, tell people about it. Just do something that get's you started.

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Fliko
Just stop thinking and start building something, and don't stop building that
something until it's usable.

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adrianwaj
Do something you really want to do instead.

