Maintaining commit-ment?

[Merrion]

How do you keep plugging away at a solo or open source project that doesn't have any monetary compensation when the "proof of concept" part is finished?

(My own are floundering...and need an injection of enthusiasm)

Any tips/ideas?

[NeedSomeAnswers]

Well it can get quite difficult when you have no real reward at the end of it, but i would say 2 things;

1, it sound like you have a few, maybe focus your effort on just 1 and push that.

2, get some other people involved, that is one of the big points of Open Source Projects is the community contribution.

[FunkyDexter]

There needs to be some reward. It doesn't have to be financial but it does need to be something that gives you an emotional pay off. It might be money, or it might be the chance to learn something new , the chance to puff your chest out and say "look at what I did", the gratitude of others when you contribute to a larger project... or whatever.

If there's no emotional pay off it's almost impossible to stay committed to something. If you're starting to flounder on a project take a step back and ask yourself why you started it. Focus on whatever that reason was and it should give you your motivation back. If it doesn't then the sad truth is that the project is no longer fulfilling it's purpose and you might as well can it.

[Merrion]

Yeah - I think the printer stuff is holding me back. I'll let it wither and see if that increases my interest in my other projects. Thanks.

[Shaggy Hiker]

If nobody else has any interest in it, and you lose interest in it, why keep it going at all? If others have interest in it, then your interest will either come from doing something for them, or doing something for their money. There is no good reason to keep doing something that nobody, not even yourself, gets any benefit from.

[SJWhiteley]

We all want open source or free software, but we also want to be paid handsomely. See the problem, here? When people say they like doing things for free they are lying. There is always a reward - the biggest motivator for everyone is money.

[Merrion]

Nah - money is just a proxy for mating rights and food ;-) (OK - this may have gone OT)

[dilettante]

Just a little Merri-ment?

[Shaggy Hiker]

SJW is right, though. It all comes down to perceived benefit relative to perceived cost. In this case, you know the cost very well (time). If you don't perceive a benefit that outweighs the cost then you'll stop. The typical benefit is money in the short term, though food and mating are the ultimate benefit there, since money is nothing much if it isn't used for something.

The other benefit that this group tends to preceive is based on curiosity and growth. When it comes to programming projects, though, you generally suck the marrow out of that bone before the project is finished. To keep going long enough to cross all the 't's and dot all the 'i's, there has to be some further motivation...which there may not be.

[dee-u]

You need chunking
http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.p...=1#post4702043

[dilettante]

Or if not Chung King perhaps Wang Chung?

[Merrion]

Actually - I've worked out that part of this is that my day job has become more exciting leaving less of a programming type hole to fill

[techgnome]

Or if not Chung King perhaps Wang Chung?

More like Wu-Tang.

-tg

[Merrion]

Actually - I have also found that doing TDD is useful in this situation because you have continuous feedback of progress.