
Strategies for Long Projects - pcprincipal
http://benbrostoff.github.io/2019/09/28/long-projects.html
======
danShumway
Excellent post.

A lot of this rings true to my experiences as well, particularly being
defensive about time and commitments. Really, most of the authors points had
me kind of nodding along.

On the other hand, I somewhat feel what the author is getting at with
optimism, but I'm not sure optimism is the right word for what makes me
productive. It's difficult to put into words, but I do agree there is a kind
of strange attitude adjustment that has to happen.

You need to reach a point where you decide you're going to do something,
regardless of what problems come up, or how long it takes. There are problems
in my own projects that I know I'll need to solve, and I don't currently know
the solutions, but I know I'll come up with solutions for them, and whatever I
need to do to pragmatically solve them will just need to happen. It's less
about me feeling confident in myself, and more just saying, "well, I care
about the outcome, and I don't care what I need to figure out in order to get
there." I know I'll put in the time, or find the resources, or learn, or give
up whatever I need to give up to make it happen.

I don't know if I'd call that optimism though. It almost feels a bit more like
stubbornness, or defiance. It's not just an assumption that things are going
to work out.

~~~
Swizec
I believe the word you’re looking for is “grit”. Gritiness has also been shown
to be the greatest predictor of success.

> Grit in psychology is a positive, non-cognitive trait based on an
> individual's perseverance of effort combined with the passion for a
> particular long-term goal or end state (a powerful motivation to achieve an
> objective). This perseverance of effort promotes the overcoming of obstacles
> or challenges that lie on the path to accomplishment and serves as a driving
> force in achievement realization.

~~~
pure-awesome
I know you're just quoting Wikipedia here, but any idea what does "non-
cognitive" mean in this context? What are some examples of cognitive and non-
cognitive traits and why does grit fall into the latter category?

~~~
michannne
My understanding: it's behavioral, you don't need to have a certain level of
intelligence to have grit

------
killjoywashere
I don't want to come across as putting down the author's work, but for the
sake of everyone else, I want to reframe the definition of "long project".

This would be a nice post if it was titled "Strategies for Quick Projects".
I'm on year 8 of what is likely a life-long project (at a pace that is
doubling annually). That's a fairly long project, but far from the longest.
The Manhattan Project, the Human Genome Project, the Apollo project. The
Shuttle program. The National Cathedral. These are long projects. They're big
too. There are other long projects which might be considered "small". Learning
violin is a long, small project. Cataloging all the species of flora and fauna
on an island is a long, small-ish project. Cataloging all the microbiota on
that island would be a medium-big project. Cataloging all the microbiota on a
continent would outstrip the Human Genome Project by a factor of 100.

~~~
onion2k
_The Manhattan Project, the Human Genome Project, the Apollo project. The
Shuttle program. The National Cathedral. These are long projects._

This is semantic hair-splitting a bit, but those things aren't "projects".
They're portfolios of programs that are made up of lots of individual
projects.

~~~
brixon
Well, that is a strategy to deal with large/long projects, break them into
smaller/shorter ones.

------
_pmf_
"I’m in the middle of three multi-month to a year projects right now"

That counts as "long"?

~~~
wa1987
Could be. "Long" is a subjective concept.

------
yamrzou
Great post, with a lot of helpful advice.

I particularly found this point of view interesting, would love to hear some
examples of it:

> Moreover, I believe that choosing to feel something can make you feel that
> way even if the feeling is artificially manufactured. What I mean by this is
> that when someone asks us to label how we feel, the label we select is based
> on how we physically feel at the moment. But what if you said the exact
> opposite of how you actually felt? Is it possible the re-labeling could
> become reality? This seems absurd on the face of it, but my experience has
> been that re-labeling works and causes an actual physical response.

~~~
vitro
If you are happy, you smile. But also, try to smile if you are not happy, it
works both ways. Your mind projects itself in the body, but by controlling the
body, you can influence the mind. With this said, I can imagine how re-
labeling can actually have physical response.

~~~
aytekin
I love doing something similar with my small kids (4 and 2). I start laughing
for no reason and when they see me laughing they start laughing. We laugh and
have good time without any reason until we get tired. I also remember seeing
some festival in India on TV. Everyone is laughing and having good time, for
no reason.

~~~
vitro
Yes, with kids that works nice. Sometimes they are upset so I start to laugh
for no reason until they cannot hold it anymore and start laughing as well.
Well, sometimes they get even more upset, so use with caution.

------
hobo_mark
Something I have been wondering all these years I've been working on long-term
projects is, how do others make relationships work with something that, almost
by definition, consumes all of one's free time and energy?

~~~
vitro
Just today, we put our kids to kindergarten, went for a coffee and had a nice
walk in an autumnish weather. It is 11AM now and I still haven't started
working, but once I do, I probably won't finish sooner than at 9PM.

I guess you need to find a sweet spot between tension and relaxation. Too
tense and you end up being burned out. Too relaxed and you quit because it
won't be interesting or challenging enough.

Your mind needs a rest too to serve you (and your projects) well. So by taking
a rest and forgetting the project for a while, you actually help the project
as well!

~~~
hobo_mark
Since you post this on a monday, I assume you don't work a regular job? I also
finish working at ~7-8pm, so I can only work on my own projects after that
(until ~1am or so). I do rest, on Saturdays, but when I do I'm too tired to
socialize, and if someone asks me out I will say no. I'm not going to give up
my projects, hence the dilemma.

~~~
vitro
As a freelancer I have a luxury to be a master of my time, with all the bad
and good that comes with it. Last week I worked half Sunday so this Monday I
have hours covered.

I also work on my project, sometimes whole day, or two, sometimes even a
week.. it depends on my clients' requirements and how skillful I was in
planning the time.

It took me some years to get there, however. And now with kids it gets even
more challenging.

Regarding socializing, it is true, my circle is now rather small, but I take
it as a temporary state.

------
atrilumen
Thanks for this.

I've been struggling to work full time on a project for a few years now. I
think it's the most important thing that I can do with my life now, so I
refuse to let go for any reason. (I'm a US citizen literally starving in
Colombia.)

I can't get traction the way I've been going, so I have to make radical
changes immediately. Thanks for the list.

    
    
        1. Tenacity (check!)
        2. Logging  (need a lot of improvement. where has all my time gone?!)
        3. Compounding (I fear I'll be contemplating this one all day now)
        4. Defending your time (prob need to back off on this one; too lonely)
    

I'm really loving Musk's rhyme: If the schedule is long, it's wrong; if it's
tight, it's right. I've been moving way too slowly, spending too much time on
small details.

I need to do my thing more openly instead of hiding out with my head down;
maybe I would have never done that first project reboot, and I'd have
customers by now!

~~~
jshowa3
Except for the fact that Elon Musk nearly always misses his own deadlines so
what's the point of that rhyme if you don't even know what the deadline should
be?

Making deadlines tight for the sake of it makes no sense other than to keep
you working longer. Not that that's a bad thing, but if you end up missing the
deadline, well... I don't know what you would think then.

~~~
atrilumen
Also, you learn from missing deadlines. So having deadlines must be valuable
even if you consistently miss them.

~~~
jshowa3
I don't know. What I learn is that I either: a) suck b) am slow c) drastically
underestimated my ability d) drastically underestimated the projects
complexity

Either way, most of it is negative. I can't think of much good coming out of
missing a deadline other than it makes you look incompetent.

~~~
atrilumen
And you're better off _without_ learning those things? Man, if there's a
problem, _especially with me_ , I need to know it.

~~~
jshowa3
No. It's just most people don't view it as themselves being the problem. Which
is why it's all mostly a lie.

Even Elon doesn't seem to care about why he misses deadlines because he keeps
making them.

------
wmij
Something that has helped me with recognizing incremental progress on long
running side and personal projects where completion seems so far off is
relating it to the crawler vehicles NASA used to get the Space Shuttle to the
launch pad.

[https://www.nasa.gov/content/the-crawlers](https://www.nasa.gov/content/the-
crawlers)
[https://youtu.be/N1WvVRavXsI?t=60](https://youtu.be/N1WvVRavXsI?t=60)

Incremental progress and speed seem slow (1 mph), but eventually you will get
into position for launch.

This has helped me understand how weight and physical constraints (these ==
time commitments to a primary project, family, sleep, etc.) impact velocity on
where you start from getting to an eventual goal (starting a side project and
coming to release, launch, etc.). Some things just can't travel faster than 1
mph due to external constraints.

------
jshowa3
What I don't get is how does one know they will solve a problem? I run into
many problems that I don't have a good solution for and can't seem to figure
out nor find how to get one. So I usually need to ask a co-worker for help and
even then, they usually have to do it for me because they can't find time to
show me how to do it. And if they do it or even show you what you need to do,
are you really solving that problem?

Guess it's one of those things no one seems to be able to figure out since
most of these pieces never really describe, in detail, what their process
actually is for something that's unsolvable for them.

------
hellisothers
This article rings true of my experience with accomplishing projects both in
and out of software but I think it also describes my approach to life
generally (optimism + grit) which makes me think it’s less a thing learned and
more a personality/behavior thing. I know several people who’s approach to
life, the universe, and everything is “everything is terrible, I’m going to
fail” and have built up defensive mechanisms to manage to still succeed.

Also, I would have liked this post to touch on “what do you do when things
actually fall apart” too.

------
codeisawesome
This post couldn't have been more timely in my life.

