Being too ambitious is a clever form of self-sabotage

Re:Being too ambitious is a clever form of self-sabotage by czhu12 on Saturday July 05, 2025 @02:04PM (#44474422)

I think this is why it helps a lot to build something you actually use. Because then, the barometer for what is good becomes a lot more defined: "Did I solve the problem I had", and then slowly build up from there.

Instead of trying to imagine a thing that someone else might or might not need.

I've been slowly chipping away at a heroku alternative called Canine [1] for the better part of a year now on the side, and for once, I don't feel tons of pressure or self loathing for not working on it quickly enough.

I use it every day now, and whenever I come across something that I wish was a little better (at the moment, understanding how much memory is used by the cluster is a pet peeve), I ruminate on it for a few days before hopping in and making some changes. No more, no less. It helps me get away from "what is the perfect solution", to "can i fix this thing that annoys me right now"

[1] https://canine.sh

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Re:Being too ambitious is a clever form of self-sabotage by anontrot on Saturday July 05, 2025 @04:44PM (#44475410)

so if i am content with my life, i can't create anything...

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Re:Being too ambitious is a clever form of self-sabotage by Herring on Saturday July 05, 2025 @08:16PM (#44476629)

Nah you can, you just need to worry extra hard about finding product-market-fit or you’ll have something 100% useless on your hands.

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Re:Being too ambitious is a clever form of self-sabotage by lotyrin on Saturday July 05, 2025 @07:20PM (#44476342)

Shaw's unreasonable man strikes again.

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Re:Being too ambitious is a clever form of self-sabotage by whilenot-dev on Saturday July 05, 2025 @04:47PM (#44475423)

> "Did I solve the problem I had"

I really think that's the wrong question, but I don't know how to formulate it any better... it should be somewhere between playful curiosity ("how did it advance me a step in my own interests?"), pragmatic foresight ("how did it open up new possibilities?"), and bland reflection ("why was it the necessary thing to do at that moment?").

> "can i fix this thing that annoys me right now"

Whatever your questions might be, I sure hope they won't only aim for a boolean answer.

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Re:Being too ambitious is a clever form of self-sabotage by prairieroadent on Saturday July 05, 2025 @07:43PM (#44476444)

my intuition on all this, and what both you seem to be getting at is that is wildly difficult to understand the problems of others at least to the degree that you understand your own problems, which even then understanding one's own problems is hard... which leads to the perspective of focusing on what they understand (their own problems), and then as a side-effect of addressing their own problem helping others by documenting their problem and attempted solutions... documenting and broadcasting adds a little bit of overhead but it seems like an environmentally-friendly approach to participating in society in a healthy way

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