Hello World! – Building a Project While Fighting Shiny Object Syndrome
Let’s start simple.
What is “Shiny Object Syndrome”?
Here is the definition pulled straight from Wikipedia:
Shiny Object Syndrome is the situation where people focus undue attention on an idea that is new and trendy, yet drop it in its entirety as soon as something new can take its place.
In my own words, I would describe it as chasing the novelty and the rush of starting a new project only to lose interest when I hit the not-so-fun parts.
Why does that happen?
I don’t know. My guess would be that I have a lot of ideas that I want to see tangible results from fast. Like, for example:
- I want to see my app right in front of me in one or two sessions at most.
- I have a lot of energy for one week straight to work on my new idea, and then I lose interest at the first boring part I encounter.
Very valid reasoning, but in the end, I’m left with a bunch of unfinished projects and feeling worse than when I started.
This is why I’m here: to share my progress as I try to overcome SOS. I think I perform better when I have someone watching me, waiting for my results, or when I have a real deadline that isn’t enforced only by myself. I need the consequences and the pressure to commit.
So, now that you know what SOS is and why it sucks, let’s see how to fix it.
In front of me is one of my latest Shiny Objects (SO), and I’ve decided that I will apply these next steps to finish it before starting on a new SO.
Here’s the game plan:
- Open the Shiny Object.
- If I started working on it already: document a piece of the finished work every week.
- DO NOT START WORKING ON THE NEXT PART UNTIL ALL FINISHED PARTS ARE DOCUMENTED HERE.
- Plan for the next steps of the SO.
- Implement them (write notes on the changes and decisions taken while implementing).
- Document them here.
Now that we have a vague plan of what we are going to do, let me tell you about the Shiny Object in question:
It is a personal file drive where users upload files from any device, but the files actually live on storage the user chooses — their own laptop, for example. Upload a file from your phone while your laptop’s off, and it queues. The moment your laptop turns back on, it syncs automatically.
It is being implemented with Express, which I’m still leveling up on. In the next article, we’ll get started on the basic architecture and figure out what we need for now.
If you’re also a fellow sufferer of SOS, or you’re just interested in seeing how this project turns out, feel free to follow along. I’m not entirely sure where this journey will take me yet, and honestly… that’s part of the fun.
Your one and only,
stillrefactoring
