Defining Awesome
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  • Written by . Posted at 2:40 pm on August 1st, 2010

    Everywhere I see or hear that you should state your plans publicly for a better succes rate. I found evidence quite contrary http://sivers.org/zipit Looking back at my accomplishments they were always a secret.

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    12 comments.

    1. It all depends on what type of person you are, there is no rule about how successful you will be. It depends on how realistic the goals are, if you’re determined to go do something no matter what then I’m sure announcing your plans would motivate you, but if the goal is to do something you wouldn’t usually do then I’m pretty sure that it could go either way.

      Also you can’t really trust studies on this because everyone has plans that they don’t tell people, nobody is so open that they tell at least one person every single one of there plans (and to do so would also be technically difficult), therefore it is much more likely that at some point somebody will fail one of these plans, no?

      If you have a huge difficult idea then you probably will find it easier to go through with because other people will motivate you and if you drop it you feel that you’d be letting them down. But if your plan is kept secret then the only thing stopping you from dropping it is you.

      And you can’t really trust peoples answers in polls, people contradict what they answer in polls VERY frequently. On top of that most people are talking from self experience when they say it’s better to publicly announce your plans. So personally I disagree with this evidence.


    2. Actually, the article says you should not tell people your goals as positive ideas, so every time you said “I’m going to make the greatest game in the world”, you did just that.

      Perhaps from now on you should stop taling about future plans for LD and just show people what is already finished.


    3. ¿¿Hablas español??


    4. Here’s what I suspect:

      Stating vague, virtuous goals like “getting in shape” or “reading more” hurts actually accomplishing them. But stating concrete goals like “implementing 2.5d aiming” helps accomplishing them.

      Ring true for you, MM?


    5. Underline

      Do what you wanna do. Ask for opinions for what you are not sure about.


    6. I really think that you should learn from your own experieces, don’t let internet aticles tell you what to do. Would Link-Dead really be going any better if this blog didn’t exist? Why don’t you see for yourself.


    7. So damn true! I’ve experienced this when releasing almost-finished Soldat maps. I still have many [many] maps that I have never finished simply because I released a download way sooner than I should have, or explained what my map was going to be before I actually did any of it.

      90% of the maps that I HAVE finished have been kind of “secret” until, of course, the release. As an example, I had stopped working on a map for a year, and people thought (with good reason) that I was never going to finish it. At that point, it seemed more appealing to finish the map.

      It certainly is weird how this works. Of course, not explaining everything also allows for exploration and anticipation of the product (often times taking the form of…? patience!).


    8. Of course, I suppose more was involved in not finishing certain maps, but what I explained was an overall, crude example of something that was usually true [for me].


    9. It also probably depends on what motivates you personally. I like the idea of surprising people. I sometimes imagine peoples faces when they react to something I made that they did not expect. Gives me joy.


    10. yeah thats kinda true


    11. true, that.


    12. Too bad it’s impossible to surprise people if you’re extremely slow.


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