Code Soloist #14: Stay interested

You really can, and do, get bored of your own ideas. Even your best ones. Many times the sheer act of expending effort on a great idea is enough to kill it. It’s okay. But you need to hack the mental system in any way you can, or you’re going to walk off the set of one of your projects, even if it’s a good part of the way there (80% done, 20% complete). I’ve already done this. I’ll have lots to write about that later.

Be interested to begin with

I was fortunate to have the chance to meet and speak with Ruben Gamez, creator of Bidsketch, quite accidentally while attending Superconf. Ruben is a true code soloist, having built a profitable, useful, and thoughtful service as a solo developer. Before Ruben found the persinpiration (inspiration to perspire) to launch Bidsketch, he built a testing management tool, reached 75% completion, and then dropped it in the can because his mind was bleeding from boredom; during the discomfort, he planted a seed for an idea he could stay interested in, and brought it home.

Inject help when it hurts

Don’t think for a second that being a code soloist means you do everything, all the time. Well timed help can dig you out of a hole you’d otherwise spend long enough in to question why you started in the first place. If you’re still feeling the love but you’re buried under the details of finishing, hire out. This isn’t cheating, chefs don’t wash their own dishes.

Allow for a wandering mind

You need to scratch your mental itch. I used to think this was a bad idea, that a wandering mind was symptomatic of an inborn inability to ship product. But that’s not true. It comes from loving the energy of the start, a technologist’s “runners high”, a cocktail of oxygen, anxiety, and hope. Use that feeling as a litmus test for the project you’re running with. If you don’t feel it on a weekly basis, you’re probably setting course for a creative burnout.

Code Soloist is for single-person software development companies that are trying to start something big with their bare hands. In it, I try to impart whatever I’ve learned, for better or worse, doing the same thing badly.


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