I call it creative ejaculationism. They all start swimming, but only one or two will get to the finish line. You can learn a lot from the ones who won’t make it, to help the one that will.
this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2026
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Don't accidentally use the term without definition in a group that doesn't know it yet lol
The framing that I learn from all the work projects that lose out to the fire of the day really helps me stress less over all the unfinished work. I am better able to do the initial evaluation efficiently and stop working at an earlier stage on things with cost/benefits ratios that don't justify, and more likely to successfully identify fixes when projects that do justify coalesce.
Would still be nice to fix all the things I know are broken, but I am mostly at peace with the system as it is.
I'm actually on track to finally rework and finish off a twenty year old creative project by the end of the month! 🎉🎉🎉
One (almost) down, eight to go!
Honestly, I don't think projects have to be finalized. Sometimes you just want to build or try something. I have aborted dozens of projects, from web interfaces to games and frameworks. Sometimes, you just want to build something, finish that and then realize the remaining part of the project is not interesting.
You learn something with everything you start. I don't think finishing it is an obligation.
Just wanted to say the exact same thing.
Projects can be treated like games too. You had some fun, learned a bunch, challenged yourself, and when there's only uninteresting stuff left; why bother?
(alt: picture of Facebook's mod report form, with "I'm in this photo and I don't like it" selected)
You may ask what I was building with all of these unfinished projects.
The thing I was building was myself.
Not pictured: unfinished, abandoned projects
Those are the skeletons sitting in the chairs down on the seafloor.
Or "thrifted objects and fantasy of the associated project" and "new shiny thing I found".
I keep burning myself out with projects that sound great on paper, but take weeks to complete. Hosting my own Lemmy instance was one of those things. Was it fun? Kinda. Would I do it again? Hell no
Ur doing the Lord's work helping build the lemmyverse
It took you weeks to host your own lemmy instance?
No, hosting was the easy part. Setting up a proper firewall, SMTP and building a custom docker image however…
Ah yeah, SMTP is usually a bitch. I only had an instance for myself back when I used lemmy and never bothered with actually setting up the email part lmao.
Aren’t you using Lemmy now?
I mean, kinda? I am on a piefed instance, which kinda means I don't actively use lemmy, but I am communicating with lemmy instances, so ... idk? If I had to choose, I'd say no.
!adhd@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Don't forget the nepo baby coworker who is sitting on his phone off to the side doing fuck-all
At this point I've given up doing things. Every new project is just a clutter-generating waste.
I've started joting ideas down on a markdown file in the Projects directory instead. Now to clean up my 500 browser tabs.
I just started using obsidian. It's perfect for starting new projects because even when you don't finish, you don't have to completely restart.
Good notes are great, but only if you can find them. For half a year, my notes were just the date. It became an issue when I needed to remember a project I worked on in March but didn't finish. Having links and screenshots and visually seeing relations between ideas has made it much easier to pause and come back later.
Its also got a bunch of excellent free community plugins that add more functionality, like drawings and data visualization. My personal favorite is called Iron Vault, it lets you run the really rather brilliant Ironsworn solo ttrpg system entirely in your notes with rolls and machanics being all taken care of inline
I tried notes for a while, just became more clutter.
Once even tried making a spreadsheet of unfinished projects, which also got added to itself
Mm, this seems ADHD.
Or OCD.
Slopcoding has made this so bad. But in the before time I was so burned out by work I couldn't get myself to program at home so they all stayed in my head
Me opening my notepad to start a new song for the millionth time
Baking trays and a baking rack can help organize all of your smaller physical projects.
That's a great new project
Hmm, anyone have any good ideas for storing the parts of an unfinished baking rack?
Basically my game dev folder. I hit the Perforce free tier workspaces limit multiple times already.
This is a symptom of bipolar disorder.
And ADHD, and just being busy