goodpeoplewin

I _really_ wanted FreeCAD to work for me.

I just don't trust Fusion360 not letting me have my files on my own hard disk.

I'm too much of a beginner to drop thousands on the higher end professional software.

So FreeCAD sounded perfect.

But three main problems made me give up: 1) The "topological naming problem" / random crashing. Couldn't ask a team to put up with that. 2) I found there wasn't a clear path to navigate the choice between the competing versions / forks / assembly things, and learn CAD at the same time. (Don't know enough to know what I'm comparing) 3) The interface just isn't as easy to use or learn. There isn't a long and clear set of tutorials like there is for Fusion360 [1]

So I've decided to settle for learning CAD first via Fusion360 for now, in hope that by the time I've got a good understanding of it, the various FreeCAD tribes will have merged into one solution, or that the main fork has improved enough that someone makes great tutorials for it.

[1] Here's is a great, professional tutorial series for Fusion360 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvrHuaHhqHI (Somehow it's almost too-professional unofficial-official. Does anyone know if this is actually Autodesk?)

I'm strikingly reminded of Jocko's book "Discipline Equals Freedom". Not the contents, just the title. (Echoing: http://www.paulgraham.com/vb.html)

I agree that reviews are a poor measure of value/quality. Fake reviews can be purchased now.

But ranking apps by engagement is measuring the wrong thing: Some apps are wonderful, but are used very infrequently -> Low 'engagement'. A YC example would be AirBNB.

Also a Canberran! There once was a time in my life when I woke up at 5am every day for two weeks straight. It was magic.

You've prompted me to try again. Cheers mate!

On the "juggling multiple unfinished projects" I outgrew this successfully. What it took was to accept accountability. I have a trusted mate that I talk with, and update him on where my current project is at, so I can't just let it slide. We both understand and agree that starting something new can't happen unless we've discussed the previous thing: dropping it is fine, but needing to give a reason first is the difference. This has prevented me from (1/n) assing n things many times, and persisting.

Most hackers I know are chronically optimistic planners (both micro and macro), and at the same time, they (we) despise the authority of having someone "help" them with planning their own workload. So I'm taking a stab at solving this problem for myself, with a technical means to prevent me from blundering on with a bad plan. Long time lurker, first MVP post to HN, apologies for any faux pas I'm committing!