In an earlier post I said that projects could be described in phases: - Starting to start, continuing to start, ending starting. - Starting to continue, continuing to continue, ending continuing. - Starting to end, ending to end, ending ending.
These came from a long-ago seminar on accomplishment. They may be useful as a set of distinctions, but something much more valuable is hiding here. Indeed, this somewhat strange formulation invites us to think of starting, continuing and ending as *complex processes* rather than milestones. This is having a huge impact on my life and work. 1. Thinking of *starting *as a process has ended procrastination for me. This was so useful when restarting the console gui work. Without this point of view, I could easily have become daunted. Instead, I started to start this project by re-learning how to start the console gui. That took quite awhile! I also googled to find my writings to the npyscreen people. All this became pre-writing for recent docs. This attitude is also useful doing chores, or when considering new projects. Just find a way to start to start! Finally, this attitude encourages us to break too-large projects in to smaller units. Each unit may *itself* be a complex process, with its own beginning, continuing and ending phases. *Being in action smashes mental barriers*. 2. Thinking of *ending *as a process encourages thoroughness. Ending is not something to be "gotten through" as quickly as possible! It deserves our full attention, for as long as it takes. Starting to end may be a kind of milestone, but continuing to end could take an arbitrarily long time. The end of ending then happens naturally. We are seeing this play out with the console gui project. #599 <https://github.com/leo-editor/leo-editor/issues/599> records some unlikely further steps in the projects. Furthermore, the "nits" in #509 must be dealt with now, no matter how long that takes. But starting to start each "nit" will ensure quick action. Lastly, the ending process will include future bug reports... *Seeing completion as a process is a cure for impatience*. Edward -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "leo-editor" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/leo-editor. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
