Keep it Simple Stupid
I fall into the build it all trap anytime I start a project.
If you haven’t yet, check out this video by Ira Glass on taste.
This is the trap I find myself in when I am thinking of a project.
I focus on the two or three years out, being sold to a company, or having 10,000 daily users, or being featured by gamers on Twitch. Rather than what is the minimum viable product I can make today to help build to that point.
My to do list is not normal. Mine is win an Oscar, not write a screenplay. Create the best fantasy football app, not build one app. I focus on the best end goal possible, and when it seems like it won’t match up with my thoughts on what it could be in my mind I give up.
Speed bumps feel like road blocks when you are in the end goal headspace.
Focusing on the little goals along the way is always the advice I hear. That sounds good, but to me, who thinks like every project I make should be award winning, it is tough to focus on those pieces. And any part that doesn’t work seems like a good enough reason to quit and go to one of the other ideas I have rattling around my brain.
What I have started to do this year that helps is adding self-validation to the steps I list. Most of my goals rely on validation. Winning an Oscar, getting a top app store spot, being a sponsor for one of my favorite podcasts.
Adding self-validation to my to do list has helped a lot. Instead of writing a script as a to do list. I put write ten pages. And the self-validation is this is ten more pages than I had before I started. When thinking of an application I write do research on apps I use now. The self-validation is I use these apps a lot and will have a lot to learn from them.
This allows speed bumps to feel easier to go over and there is a plan I can see once I am past the speed bump.
I hope this helps others who get stuck in the perfectionist or taste trap. We know what is good, it just takes a lot of time to get that good as well.
