Finishing software ain't easy

When I start work on a project, whether for personal or professional purposes, I have a sense that I need to devote myself to it. That I should figure out how to make it the best it can be, I should only commit the best codes to it; it should be an exemplary piece of work.

On the one hand, this is taking pride in my work, and that’s good! On the other hand, this is ownership, and that’s a little problematic.

The problem with ownership is it leads to irrational decisions. There’s always one more improvement I could make, because this is the thing I own. There is little bit of scope I could add, because I can make this thing really good (at least in my head). There’s one more bug to fix (inexplicably, in my head).

What I’m finding all this points to is, finishing is hard. It’s easy to start a project. It’s challenging to get it out there, and get people to use it. It’s really hard to get it to the point where it’s running itself, you can delegate its operation to others, or it doesn’t need further work.

So that’s a thing I’m trying to figure out. Developing.

Adam Keys @therealadam