I definitely try to make my projects simpler and shorter, especially because I worry about my endurance. One problem is that I constantly have new ideas that often seem even simpler than the one I am currently working on. So it is tempting to switch to the even simpler project, which ultimately leads to too much distraction.
* You can't do it all with a few days of coding * You need little wins along to way to keep the wind in your sails.
For a website-based project, you want to put pen to paper and come up with a plan for "What Has to Happen For Me to Make My First Sale":
* Demo
* Website
* Marketing
* Processes in place post-sale
Those are easy - so focus on coming up w/ a plan of action and timeline/budget for implementing those. It's amazing just how much the planning process gets you starting to feel energized and, "I'm actually doing it!"
Good luck :)
Yes. The hardest thing is to get it going. And even, if you didn't get accepted into YC, you would have started a habit of creating and working on projects that you want to work on. Which is invaluable.
What is your definition of a cool project? I've posted about this before - and I hate to sound like a broken record player but some of the most interesting projects were done in a very short time. Yes, you might not be able to create something in 4 hours but once you get the momentum going, a weekend project might produce something.
"So, imagine my amazement when I had a glance at Twittervision, which was created by David Troy using Ruby on Rails in 4 hours"
In the fair chance, you haven't heard this Ira Glass segment about the process of creating/making (which I learned about from News.YC) - it inspires me and may well you http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hidvElQ0xE