You can put this on the ADHDmemes community too and it will fit just as well.
I almost didn’t finish a PhD because of this. It’s like telling people about makes it feel like you’ve accomplished something and made some progress on it - when that’s factually wrong.
I’m sure that there’s a name for this phenomenon, something in psychology.
Yeah it’s definitely a thing.
I’m not gonna go hunting for it, but I’m pretty sure this has been studied and you’re spot on.
I am convinced the entire actual point of college is to test “ability to finish a project”. A Bachelor’s degree is a four year project. A Master’s degree is an additional two year project. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) is an additional five to eight year project. (Do remember that a Master’s is not needed for a PhD.)
This is not a judgement on the many reasons for stopping.
This is fine. Projects that require specialized skills can require that you get heavily invested before you discover the implications, scope and yeah your own lasting interest.
No, seriously, i am working on it!
last commit: 7 months ago
“This repository was archived by the owner on July 12, 2025. It is now read-only.”
Quick, what was your last project you didn’t finish?
For me it was app to prepare for nautical exams. I wrote a scraper that downloaded all official tests and answer sheets, trained image recognition model to find the marked answers and started working on parsing the question PDFs but then I had to find a new job and never got back to it.
I enjoy that “reading the book” and “taking a practice exam” were not listed as activities done. :)
Let’s be real… telling everyone goes before actually starting it
you all have someone to talk to about your projects?
Looks like me ye indeed
I am desperately hoping the people I tell about my ideas will steal them so the project will exist without me having to do anything.
Apparently, the dopamine rush of telling someone about your project, you going back to school, you getting healthy, improving yourself, etc is so strong it’s basically pre-rewarding you for it. The result is scientifically-documented drops in people following-through and achieving their goals… You want to succeed? Don’t tell anyone until you’re already almost there!
Well I’m triggered
All I see is that this cycle is more efficient.
check this dope URL I picked up, I have an idea and it’s totally going to be viral
