I sympathize as well; this certainly one of my 'faults', too. But there really is value in completing things. Perhaps more importantly, a lot of otherwise bright people can become quite conceited after having 'figured something out'. One of the most valuable things about bringing something to completion is that, on the way, it challenges assumptions.

Yeah, I totally agree. When you keep getting off on knowing you could do something instead of actually doing it, the evidence on which you're basing that knowledge starts to get pretty shaky.

I don't know what you mean by "getting off on" other than the fact that it's fun to solve problems. It's not like I'm gloating about what I do. Most of the little things I work on are completely private endeavors that I never even talk to anyone about.

Knowledge is worth pursuing for its own sake; not everything is a competition.

I meant it solely in the sense of deriving pleasure from the activity, and not at all in the sense of gloating or competition.

This is exactly what I meant. I didn't mean to imply that I was somehow too good to pursue an idea, just that it's hard to stay motivated once you've cracked the interesting problems.