The Art of Finishing

There’s a certain comfort in the realm of infinite possibility. When a project is ongoing, it can be anything. It’s Schrödinger’s project — simultaneously perfect and flawed until you actually finish it and put it out into the world. The moment you declare a project “done,” you open it up to criticism, both external and internal. What if it’s not good enough? What if I missed something crucial?

My personal list of projects in progress is quite large, but I like that they allow me to daydream. Sometimes, starting something new means trying out a new tech stack or library. Other times, it’s about exploring an idea that sounds great until you actually start working on it and encounter all the odd quirks that seem impossible.

I don’t know if having many ongoing projects is a bad thing. The main risk I see is getting overwhelmed by the number of things you want to do and not finishing anything. For me, these projects feel like a hobby and don’t have to be taken very seriously. Whether you finish them or leave them open doesn’t really matter, as long as you can mentally let go of stale projects.