Other Software > Developer's Corner

Programming Ennui, Anyone?

(1/6) > >>

kyrathaba:
I've been working on my N.A.N.Y. 2010 app since August.  It's going quite well, and is, by my estimation, about 90% "done".  Some of my RPG players have done some testing for me.  I still have some finishing-up touches to make.  Perhaps a few more hours of coding.  What I've been finding is that I've begun to lose a little "steam", or drive, to work on it.

I've noticed a similar pattern over the past four or five years when working on a fairly sizable project:  I start off great guns, working lots of hours per week with great enthusiasm.  As time goes on, a sense of ennui gradually steals over me.

Don't get me wrong:  I fully intend to finish the project, and it will be useful when completed -- albeit to a rather limited audience. 

I wonder if the rest of you coders experience a similar ennui-phenomenon?

KynloStephen66515:

* Writers Block

* Procrastination

* Lack of Inspiration

* Distraction By Another Project
4 Things pretty much every Programmer, Writer, or Designer faces each and every day :)

mouser:
Oh my yes.. Only a fraction of projects i work on ever escape this pattern.. The miracle is when you manage to stick with them long enough to reach escape velocity from the ennui.

Honestly this is one of those things that makes you a real programmer, developing the habits and skills that can carry you past the inevitable decrease in enthusiasm that happens when you start really getting into the weeds with a project and hitting the unfun slog through getting it really "finished".  It's not easy.

barney:
Hee, hee  :D.  The last decade I was in corporate America, the hardest part of anything I did, whether report, Web site, program, whatever, was the last 5%-10%.  Seemed as though every time the end of the tunnel - not the light at the end of the tunnel, but the end of the tunnel - showed up, I'd slow down.  Hardest work I did was that last 5%-10%.  Oh, I'd finish ... but it hurt  ;D.

phitsc:
I have the opposite problem right now. I find it really hard to start private projects at the moment. I have quite a few ideas of applications I'd like to start, or programming stuff (technologies, programming languages, etc) I'd like to look into. But it's so much easier to start the PS3, or just follow a book. One of my problems is the knowledge of how much time it takes to bring something to a useful state, or even finish it. Then I compare that with the private time I have currently available and see that I just won't get anywhere with the time I could invest right now. That is enough de-motivation to keep me from even starting something.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page