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Ask HN: Anyone else lose interest right after proving an idea works?

by grandimam on 5/25/25, 5:40 PM with 3 comments

I've noticed a recurring pattern in myself: I get excited about an idea (often AI-related lately), prototype it quickly, and once I’ve built the core functionality or proven it works, I completely lose interest. The initial curiosity and momentum vanish, and I find myself asking, “Do I even want to pursue this long term?”

It feels like once the challenge or novelty is gone, so is the motivation — even if the idea has potential. I end up with a graveyard of working demos and half-baked side projects.

Is this just dopamine-driven behavior? A multipotentialite thing? Or is this more common among builders, especially with tools like AI making the prototype stage so fast?

Curious if others experience this and how you manage it — do you force yourself to push through, hand it off, or just accept that exploration is the goal?

  • by k310 on 5/25/25, 6:00 PM

    Maybe you're just a problem-solver without a bigger vision, or feedback on what's really wanted or needed, like Wozniak had his Jobs.

    On a smaller scale, I'll sometimes solve a little problem, and the "mathematician" in me keeps looking for other solutions, maybe more elegant, maybe simpler, maybe more complex, and maybe just because I got the ball rolling and why stop now?

    "To Engineer is Human". Not just when it fails [0] but also when it succeeds. Humans are only human. I have hundreds of Calochortus photos,[1] but since it's the very brief flowering season, I am drawn to go out and take more. Except this morning, as I'm a little pooped. But then again ... (looks out window) ...

    [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Petroski

    [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calochortus

  • by gus_massa on 5/26/25, 3:13 AM

    Make a repo in github [1] [2], write a blog post and post it in HN to farm some karma [3]. Assuming they are interesting, you gain some street credit. Not every project deserves to be continued for years.

    [1] I prefer MIT licence that is a polite version of the WTFPL. But if you are worried about Amazon hosting it without paying you, try AGPL.

    [2] Add a disclaimer that the project is not maintained, so you don't get PR. Can it be archived?

    [3] Assuming one (or a few?) projects per month. Not a daily project.

  • by fuzzfactor on 5/25/25, 6:15 PM

    You may still be looking for momentum that will hold your interest like never before :)

    Is that so bad?

    If you are getting something out of putting in the effort and making the progress you are making, it may not be that much more work to end up with a "graveyard" of relative "masterpieces".

    I wouldn't feel so bad about that :)

    I think that's what an artist would do. Don't they often have projects that stack up, more unfinished than anything, before they finally reveal the masterpiece they completed with the utmost of pride?

    When the whole time an art lover could come into the studio and might find an unfinished forgotten work they think is more impressive than the latest remarkable masterpiece.

    In which case the unfinished piece only needs a few final touches and it's selling to the highest bidder, which is a lot easier than starting from scratch. And some people do have a lot more where that came from than others ;)