From the safety of my throwaway account, I have to ask a question of HN that's been bugging me for some time:
Am I the only person who, if not for the need to support my family, might blissfully while away his days playing games, playing with new tech, reading, watching TV or movies, and just generally goofing off? Maybe I'd regret my wasted life one day, but in the here and now there's a lot of fun to be had in the world today.
I love to code, but shipping is a lot harder, and running a whole business based on that code is harder still, of course. But from reading comments like the parent on HN, there are people who would make whole _products_, or build businesses all day long if left to their own devices.
I can't tell if I was just raised differently from other people such that I am predisposed to value, say, instant gratification and to avoid hard work; or if everyone else is just ignoring these parts of their nature and not talking about the fact that getting drunk with your friends is more fun and a lot easier than following through a product idea from concept to completion.
Since you have a family, it probably has been a while since you goofed off for an extended period. But for me it always gets old. There is only so much time I can spend doing nothing before I get hungry for something of substance.
Note that raising kids is a very substantial activity. I've taken the summer off to hang out with my brother and his family. Even a lot of the nominally fun time with kids means I'm helping educate, build character, and encourage good habits. So maybe the energy you would otherwise put into making a product is going into making a family.
I'd say you're confusing interest in your work and work ethic with ambition. They aren't the same thing.
Without ambition driving you, it's pretty difficult to motivate yourself past the point where the project you're working on stops being interesting, and just seems like a lot of work. That said, some people do seem to be able to make this initial phase last long enough to crank out impressive projects. Outside of that though, if you're happy with your life right now, you might just be running a little short on the motivation necessary to "build businesses all day long".
Am I the only person who, if not for the need to support my family, might blissfully while away his days playing games, playing with new tech, reading, watching TV or movies, and just generally goofing off? Maybe I'd regret my wasted life one day, but in the here and now there's a lot of fun to be had in the world today.
I love to code, but shipping is a lot harder, and running a whole business based on that code is harder still, of course. But from reading comments like the parent on HN, there are people who would make whole _products_, or build businesses all day long if left to their own devices.
I can't tell if I was just raised differently from other people such that I am predisposed to value, say, instant gratification and to avoid hard work; or if everyone else is just ignoring these parts of their nature and not talking about the fact that getting drunk with your friends is more fun and a lot easier than following through a product idea from concept to completion.