
Ask HN: Opportunity cost fear is paralyzing me - olalonde
Have you ever been in a situation where you have so many projects and ideas to work on but don't know which one is most likely to succeed? It seems this fear of not allocating my time optimally is paralyzing me at such a point that I end up not working on anything at all. Any tip on how to get over this problem? Lack of focus is killing me :/
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patio11
Projects started fail frequently, projects unstarted succeed never. Pick one
you can deliver in a short amount of time. Do so. There, you now have a base
for expansion/learning and the habits required to successfully ship stuff.

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kls
I agree with this one, take the simplest project fist and knock it out, I
would use a second measure though. I would take would weight the project by
simplicity and potential for revenue. The one that is the simplest with the
highest potential for revenue would be the one I would start on first. You may
not end up selecting the simplest project nor the one that will make you rich
but you will select a project that will be easier to get out the door while
contributing to war chest funds to get the others done.

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silverlake
I have the same problem. Realistically, all your ideas will fail, so instead
pick the one you find most interesting.

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olalonde
Great advice :)

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dstein
Milestones. You can work on multiple projects, it might even be encouraged in
the beginning stages of a startup. If you can get your ideas built into semi-
working prototypes they'll be in a better place should you decide to come back
to them later. On several occasions I've built proof-of-concepts but ended
getting bored of it, leaving it on the back-burner, but later be able to take
all that working code and incorporate it into my other projects.

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kls
I have to disagree here, context switching for a developer kills productivity.
I believe that focusing on a single project until the end will better serve
the poster in the end. They will have a shorter time to market and they reduce
their risk of abandoning work latter on.

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percept
You might try to find an external source of motivation. In my case when
someone can benefit from or is depending on my work it provides strong
motivation to finish.

This could take the form of:

\- a partner/cofounder

\- a client (which means you'll get paid at least once, possibly more
depending on how you structure the deal)

\- presales

\- a target user, real or imagined

\- a public commitment, to friends or "HN December Launch Pad" (for example ;)

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thibaut_barrere
I use Mike Cohn "theme scoring" to prioritize my projects:

<http://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/tools/theme-scoring>

