It's the beginning of a new year, and that makes it the perfect time to start a new idea, right?
NO!!! You already HAVE a pile of projects! If you're serious about making things,
you aren't startin' SQUAT. This year, you're gonna FINISH your projects.
I posed this question to my Discord members: What prevents you from finishing your projects?
Those answers led me to create three different plans to defeat three different
obstacles that block the finish line. We'll get to those, but first, here's the cost of entry.
If you're serious about seeing your projects through to the end,
you can't start anything new. That mentality of changing the
channel whenever things get a little boring is just lethal to projects.
You've got to do the work. 'Finishing a project' is just shorthand for plopping your ass down
day after day and doing battle with tedious tasks. Staying motivated can be a challenge,
but long story short, you gotta do the stuff, because doing the stuff IS the project!
I have to assume that you can afford your hobbies, because budgeting and money management are
way outside the scope of this video. As for your abilities,
well, I learned almost everything I know by jumping into projects by myself.
The most common question I get asked in comments and Discord is, "how do I get started?" I have a
hard time answering this because I honestly do not recommend doing what I did. When you jump
straight into an ambitious build, you're walking down a lonely path that leaves you constantly
overwhelmed. I slogged through endless unnecessary challenges and left countless
half-finished projects behind because I never knew enough to know what I was getting into.
...and how to get out of it.
That's why I got excited when Skillshare offered to sponsor this episode. Skillshare is
an all-you-can-eat buffet of useful classes on practical topics taught by real practitioners,
and every single class includes guided beginner-friendly projects.
If you want to get started with electronics, check out this intro to Arduino by Mark Frauenfelder,
the founder of Make Magazine. In just one hour, you'll get a crash course on sensors, motors,
lights, code - all while wiring up your first interactive projects. You can follow along at
your own pace, replay and rewind whenever you need, and even get some help from other members.
There are absolutely zero ads, and best of all, no calls to like, comment, or subscribe... heh heh...
Skillshare is just a better introduction than an overly ambitious project,
and at ten bucks a month, the annual subscription is probably cheaper,
too. There's no pressure - you can look through the whole catalog right now, and the first 1000
people to click the link in my description will get a free trial of Skillshare Premium.
Enough shilling. Let's get stuff done. My first strategy for finishing projects
is to finish projects OFF. Not every idea turns out to be a good one, and not every good idea
turns out to be worth building. There's only one question to ask: Consider the time, money, and
everything else you'll sacrifice to finish this project. Is the result worth it? If the answer
is anything but a confident yes, don't think about it - just scrap the project for parts, right now.
It doesn't matter how long you've worked on it, it doesn't matter how much you've spent
on it. The only thing that matters is what'll it take to finish the project, and is it worth it?
I'm going to illustrate this with one of my own projects, because I am a hypocrite.
Years and years ago, my second video featured a really advanced Nerf blaster with some fancy
electronics. The video and the project are both kind of crap, so a few years back,
I decided to make version two. Here's where I am so far: I installed some screens,
I routed some wires, and I printed some mod parts. I ordered a circuit board and all the components,
I soldered it together, and I even wrote a little firmware. I estimate
that I've spent about 200 bucks and 80 to 100 hours on this project. The problem is,
this isn't even a competitive-grade blaster. If you watch my 3D-printed blaster video,
you'll know that the metagame has jumped really far since I started this project.
Doesn't matter how much money I've spent or how much time I've dumped into it - the
juice isn't worth the squeeze. The blaster isn't worth the work. So,
I'm going to stretch that metaphor to the breaking point and eat the fruit.
Let's salvage a handful of parts and just throw the rest in the trash.
Pretty everyone...
It's just says 'pretty everyone' in my script...
Pretty MUCH everyone knows the sunk cost fallacy, but not too many folks know the counterplay.
Suppose this wasn't my project, right? I'm here tinkering away on some stupid wearable that blinks
when you put your hand near an electric current, when my good buddy Yrahcaz Namdeerf barges into
the workshop carrying this box. He says it's only a few days away from being finished, plops it on
the workbench, yells, "no takesie-backsies!" and then runs away. [Scooby Doo running sound]
Here's the question: Should I drop everything I'm doing to build the Nerf blaster?
No, obviously! Like, I'm not going to put days into an outdated Nerf blaster! I'm
not going gonna drop everything I'm doing to build this project!
This thing could take months instead of days. It might cost hundreds of dollars more.
Should you finish a project that's not worth finishing? Should you start a project that's
not worth finishing? The first one feels painful to say no to, and maybe even immoral,
but these are the same questions, just phrased different ways. Finishing up a project not worth
finishing doesn't redeem the time you wasted on it. Cut your losses, move on,
spend your resources on something that's actually worth the effort.
This is honestly such a hard thing to do that it really deserves its own episode.
Let me know, which dead-end project did you take too long to kill,
and what were the consequences? Be vulnerable in my comment section so I don't have to!
The second strategy for finishing projects is to recognize when the project is already finished.
Your project could be pretty far along, but you don't think it's ready to go yet, right?
You still have to add some features, polish the appearance up... let's call this by its real name,
insecurity. Look at the project and ask yourself, "can I make this work by REMOVING things?"
Not 'is it done' or 'is it the way I want it' or 'is it impressive' or 'does it measure up?'
Does? It? Work?
If so, your project is done, and you, sir, madame, or cyborg, are creating busywork
because you're afraid to pull the trigger. This is the story of my life. Believe it or not,
Mr Fast-Growing YouTube Project Builder Channel Guy really feels uncomfortable about putting his
projects out there. I worry that the "real experts" will see what I've built and scoff.
[Harpsichord music] [In snooty British accent]
I am over here soldering SWD adapters onto instant messaging toys,
so I can brute-force garage doors open! You, talentless hack, are taking a My First Arduino
design, and acting as though YOU deserve to speak in the same conversations as I!
I have no idea why I anthropomorphize my snooty shame strawman as British Travis Goodspeed.
This mentality is not rational. It will not be cured by improving your project. If you're
in this headspace, no amount of features, polish, or fancy engineering will ever make you feel like
you belong at the cool kids' table. I built this heads up display, the Optigon, a long time ago,
and I don't just wear in every episode - I wore it in an episode FOUR YEARS AGO. The video I released
a few months back is the first time I had ever mentioned it online, let alone drawn attention to
it. I told myself that it didn't deserve to be put up until at least had a better enclosure. Well,
I bit the bullet, I called the project done, and I made a loud, obnoxious video about it.
I uploaded it and I prepared for the onslaught of holier than-thou-genius dickheads.
Apparently, I inspired this guy to start his own channel. This neckbeard is tipping his fedora
at my wife. This guy's in love with me - love you too, bro - and this guy played for the wrong team
in Ingress. The few viewers knowledgeable enough to see how technically bankrupt this project is,
and vindictive enough to attack me unprovoked, are absolutely
BURIED under a torrent of laypeople who think that hexagons are the bestagons.
Don't worry about whether you're good enough - like, you've finished a project. Don't worry
about whether the project's good enough - you can always add more features on later,
and it's easier if the project works BEFORE you start messing with it!
The final strategy is... to have a strategy. Specifically, you need an exit plan.
I'm not telling you to make a friggin' Agile Scrum planning-poker Lean burn-down Gantt chart.
Just think of everything you've done so far, and list everything that you still need to do,
to bring the project to something you consider completed. If you really want to improve your
odds, look for points of stability where you can put a project down and still have something to
show for it. If you do those first, it's less likely that "life" will "get in the way" and
trash your project, because the half-finished project will be a finished project unto itself.
The only wrong way to sort is by descending order of how much you want to do the task.
Doing the fun stuff first is a terrible approach, because you'll suck all the fun out of the project
so that all that's left is this endless stack of crummy boring crap-tasks. By making a plan,
you force yourself to confront everything at once. You'll then probably pick a smart task over a fun
task without needing a drop of self-discipline. Like, you're not an idiot, or you wouldn't be
watching my channel. You'd be watching... I don't know who's cool to hate nowadays... Jake Paul?
Speaking of out-of-touch old people, the most basic plan will shield you from the
project-killing bane of every stereotypical boomer:
tinkering. A tinkerer's target has no outcome to evaluate. I don't even want
to call it a project, because there's no serious intent to make anything.
Tinkering is never worth it because there is no 'it.' You just can't finish a project until you
define what 'finishing' is! Infinitely rearranging your cables, fiddling with your 3D printer,
changing your Raspberry Pi's terminal color... you are wasting your life. Stop messing around.
Throw the cables under the desk and play some games. Reassemble the printer and
print some stuff. Remember that you bought that Raspberry Pi to build a cyberdeck so
build a damn cyberdeck! I can't illustrate this with a project, because if I showed
you one of my works-in-progress, it would spoil a future episode.
Wait, yes I can, because it's my show, and I already did! My next project is going
to be a cyberdeck - that's a ruggedized portable computer for a dystopian future.
I've already bought this display, this battery pack, and this Raspberry Pi 400,
and did some tests and sketches. If I just jumped in now without a plan,
the first thing I want to do is hit Fusion 360 and start modeling that frame. That would be stupid,
because if I instead design the circuit board first, I can model the frame while I wait for
the boards to arrive. If I finish in time, I can start printing the frame and use that downtime to
populate the board. By doing literally nothing except making a list and rearranging it a little,
I can now do two tasks at once, both essential, and always have something fun to look forward to.
There are lots of things to do on this list but none of them are 'noodle around,'
'tweak endlessly,' 'procrastinate,' 'see what's on sale at Home Depot,'
and other ways tinkering rears its ugly, wasteful head.
These are the strategies you can use to finish your project this year - or even right now.
One: Kill projects that aren't worth finishing, no matter what you've put into them.
Two: Release projects as soon as they work,
even if you feel inadequate or you have to add on more features later.
Three: Make an exit plan and only work on things that move the project closer to completion.
Thanks again to Skillshare for sponsoring this episode! The first 1000 people to click the
link in my description will get a free trial of Skillshare Premium! It helps you move forward,
it helps the channel... Speaking of help, Voidstar Lab wouldn't be able to make sweet
projects without my generous, glorious Patrons! Our most excellent lab assistant supporters are:
Anthony Mincarelli, Bill Schuller, Zanforian, RustyFlute (heh heh), James Barry,
Gregory Jones, Taranach, Azundo, Daniel Cadwell, and Michael Dunn.
Special thanks to Brooke, my lovely wife and the lady behind the camera,
and to our Discord mods, Billie Ruben, Techniak, and MyFairJulie. I hope this gave your butt the
kick it needed to finish something awesome! I'm gonna see you, and your projects, in the future.