
The Multi-Project Programmer - kayamon
http://www.codersnotes.com/notes/multi-project-programmer/
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yigitcakar
From my perspective it's the threshold effect: in every endeavor there is a
threshold which is hard to reach, but it gets easier for one to replicate
similar things after passing it.

It is hard to find an important problem and create a viable mass market
solution for it. By accomplishing this once, you get important skills such as
time and project management, marketing and engineering skills etc. Acquiring
those skills are hard work, but once you master them, you can apply those to
everything you do. So naturally it gets easier to create new solutions.

There might be a network effect too. Creating a great project might enlarge
your network with other people who are creating important solutions. I think
this would set you in an interesting position; people would come to you with
their most important problems they wanted to see solved since you have a
proven track record. Ideas breed ideas. This might help with finding another
important problem worth solving.

The most common thing about those creating great things time after time, is
their production/consumption ratio. Humans tend to lean on consumption side
and since the world is full of distraction we are wasting most of our valuable
time on consuming info-junk. The over achievers I had a chance to meet were
always skewed towards the production side. They almost always learned new
things with a purpose. Also the threshold effect might be the cause of this
high production/consumption ratio. Creating one great project might have
created an emotional and hormonal concoction, a high, that motivates people to
focus on creating things.

Accomplishing one great task, those people has the confidence and swag that
they can achieve another one. People around them would cheer them up instead
of hindering their motivation by reminding them how hard that task is. They
would not remind them that they might be wasting their time by tackling that
huge problem. They would find eager help and funding when they need.

Those are the first few things that came to my mind when I think about what
factors might create multi-project programmers.

